Yeah, I've Been There...

My daughter has been taking swim lessons for almost 4 weeks straight now. This is her second session this year and she's doing extremely well. She passed her last session without having to repeat the same level, which was an all-time first for her. And from the looks of it, she's likely to pass this level with one try as well.

She used to be the slowest in every swimming class she was in. I suppose she was so wrapped up in her fear that she never really tried very hard. Repeating the same level was nothing new to us, either. But somehow she turned over a new leaf this year and really started to improve. I don't know if it's because she's finally comfortable in the water or what, but she's not the old dawdler that we used to know any more.

That is not to say that she doesn't dawdle in her class, though. She still takes her time adjusting her goggles after every swim. But she doesn't lag behind even when she does dawdle. In fact, quite a few times I saw, to my astonishment, that she came in first after taking her time adjusting her goggles and letting other kids have a head start. If someone had told me a year ago that this would happen, I'd have asked him what he was smoking!

There is a boy in my daughter's swim class that reminds me a lot of the way she used to be. He's always the slowest and he doesn't seem to try all that hard. This morning, both his parents were sitting only a few feet away from me and I could clearly hear the frustration in their voices: "Kick! Johnny, kick!" And I could certainly relate when they murmured to themselves, "I don't know what he's doing!"

I never had any idea what my daughter was doing, either. All I could see was that we'd have to repeat the lesson yet again. And the beach whale of a teacher that she had never bothered to help her get better. All that frustration was boiling inside as I clenched my teeth through her swim lesson every day.

But this year has been a whole new experience for me so far. I can actually laugh it off when I see her dawdle. Her improvement isn't lightning-speed, but it's not nonexistent, either. Having someone worse than her in the class certainly helps, but I'm sure that's just gravy. I feel sorry for Johnny's parents because I know exactly what they're going through.