I’m sure everyone has experienced a time in their life that has taught them an important lesson and shaped them to be who they are today. As I am sixteen and had many events occur in my life, there is one that stands out. Every strong swimmer has a story about nearly drowning. This is mine:
A balmy late-June day in 2004, my father ended his work early to take my family swimming. As my siblings were squirming anxiously in the car squealing with delight, I had butterflies in my stomach, more like killer bees. You see, I had a fear of water, and nobody knew. There was something about large bodies of water that made me squeamish.
Alas! Great Lake Nokomis loomed menacingly ahead of us. My siblings ran ahead of me already splashing each other. I, on the other hand, sat on the sand and dug my already too hot fingers in the hot sand. As I got lost counting the grains of sand, a shadow loomed over me. Just as I was turning around, my father dumped water on me. He asked me why I wasn’t swimming. I mumbled something about being allergic to water. “Nonsense”, he replied, and carried me on his back before I knew what was happening.
He threw me into knee-deep water and stood there as I overreacted and kept sinking. The thing about fearing water is, you just aren’t scared till there is too much! I spat water out, kicked fruitlessly, and sank repetitively. With a grunt, my father lifted me up and noticed I was crying. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “I’m afraid of water.” I spat out. “Baloney! No child of mine ever fears anything but God; I will teach you how to swim”, he replied. He held me horizontally in the water with one of his hand under my chest and the other under my thighs, and instructed me to kick. That’s when I drowned.
Okay, going underwater and swallowing and breathing in water isn’t drowning, but it sure as heck felt like it. After what felt like a year, but was probably twenty minutes of my father prodding me and sinking me on purpose, I had a déja vu feeling. The same thing was done to Laura Ingalls Wilder by her father!
While I’m not an outstanding swimmer, that day changed my life forever. It helped me become more confident in myself and more independent. Now, I’m not filled with chagrin when we go swimming, because I can achieve any obstacle that comes my way! The beautiful day ended with a stunning sunset as I slowly drifted to shore.
Aww, this was cute. It was nice to see that in the end the little event that changed our narrator so much was his father teaching him how to swim. Overall nice flow, no issues there at all, and that's good! I also found the characters to be believable which great as well~ Though I wouldn't have minded hearing more about his fear of water. What about the appearance of open waters has him so scared? 
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