The young woman eased herself into the pool. Despite her fear, she felt strong wearing her new leg. She was ready to make good on a pledge from long ago. In second grade in Mostar, Yugoslavia (now part of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Kazazic lost her five-year-old cousin, Jasmina, to leukemia. After Jasmina’s death, Kazazic vowed she would honor the little girl by swimming with a dolphin, an animal that
At any second, one of the eighty-five recreational swimmers could submerge, and never recover to the surface. It’s up to the lifeguard to make sure that doesn’t happen. When we think of life-saving careers, we picture doctors and police officers-rarely lifeguards. Instead, we envision the Baywatch beach run with the renowned red bathing suit or perhaps a tan teenager slumped in his lifeguarding chair, polarized sunglasses cocked just enough so that his closed lids are visible. As a pool protector, Geena Carey-a friendly seventeen-year-old with a sharp mind and bright smile-can relate.
Immediately after the break, we took the direction of the water park. At that moment the temperature was in the 80 degree. My family and I, were so hot and couldn’t wait to refresh ourselves in the cool water, we walked about half mile before we reached the water park. We went to the locker to put on ours swimming wears and my kids jumped first in the water. The water being cool for my wife and me, we were hesitant to enter on it.
A boy of approximately 11 years stated, “As long as you’re not afraid of the water, you’re cool. If you can swim real fast that makes you popular. But, no matter what, if you are caught wearing underwear [Speedo] you’re a sissy and no one likes to be around that.” As I looked around, I noticed all the boys wearing trunk-style swimming suits and realized peer pressure is still influencing the actions of pre-teens today as much as it was 10 years ago when I went through the young stage. If I was caught wearing a Speedo by my peers during adolescence, it would have been the end of my popularity too! Between the hours of 3:00 pm and 4:00 pm the YMCA experiences a surge in pool activity.
While Bethany’s dad talked to Myrlie, Bethany overheard her father say “She doesn’t know anything about Elizabeth.” Bethany realized that her parents were abandoning her without an explanation, but she begrudgingly settled in. Myrlie showed Bethany the way to her room for her grandchildren that had never been used. Myrlie then took Bethany back downstairs, where she correctly guessed all of Bethany’s favorite foods. The next day, Bethany told Myrlie that she is a swimmer, so Myrlie took her to the YMCA to swim. While they were there, one of Myrlie’s friends noticed Bethany and mentioned that she thought she was Elizabeth.
In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the main character Edna has a fascination with the sea that is never satiated. In the outset of her life she is mystified by it because she is unable to swim. To Edna, the sea represents the ultimate place for solitude and contemplation; the sea invites “the soul to wander for a spell of abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.” (13). When she finally learns to swim she pushes herself to go farther and farther, where no woman has ever gone before. The progression of Edna skill in the water also closely correlates with her mental awakening.
Jimmy grew up having a normal childhood besides the fact that he didn’t know who his father was. He was always an athletic kid in any sport he played, but showed his talent mainly for swim. During his first season swimming he never lost making it to nationals winning every event he swam in. But that was not the weird part, the weird part was on his 13th birthday which happened to be a stormy night Jimmy and his mom were having a normal diner. When his mom got up to do the dishes she knocked over a glass of water, Jimmy tried to reach out to grab it but he could not.
Alexis Paris Samantha’s story! As a little kid you are always trying to keep up with everyone around you, so it's fairly common to be out of breath. She never really recognized that she had asthma until she started taking swimming lessons twice a week. She complained to her teacher that the water was pushing on my chest or that Samantha’s bathing suit was too tight. Unfortunately, complaints were dismissed; people just thought that she was whining.
Everyone was extremely nice and welcoming and we just grew all together. My life became all about swimming. I did not know what I would do if I didn’t have swimming in my life. After two years of swimming, I encountered a shoulder injury that devastated me. All I could think about was not being able to swim.
It was my first time so I was nervous. I didn’t think you would find much in the river cause it a river. Usually you see people on TV scuba diving in an ocean, like on the beaches in Hawaii or anywhere in general. The instructor who was showing us how to scuba told us, since thousands of people from all over come to the river a lot of valuable items are dropped by tubers every day. We put our scuba gear on, and begin the hunt to the river’s floor, to pick up left behind treasures.