I love to swim.  When I was a kid, my friends and I swam daily in a local pond.  As I was swimming my laps today, I was thinking about how swimming is the only athletic activity I can do with competence and good form.  As a child, I was usually the last or the second last one picked for any team sports activities, and I tell people that I’m best at cheering for other athletes.  (I tried out for cheerleading in high school but I didn’t make that team either.)

I took swimming lessons at a nearby lake (they’re everywhere in Wisconsin) for a number of years while I was growing up, and I can do every stroke except the butterfly.  The back crawl is my best stroke; the breast stroke is my weakest.  I even earned a lifesaving certificate when I was sixteen.  The final exam took place in a lake and required “saving” an overweight middle-aged woman who seriously fought to get away.

The larger high schools in our area had swimming pools and swim teams, but I attended a small high school (300+ students) and our school district didn’t have that kind of money.  If it had, I might have been able to make the team.  On the other hand, doing a competitive back crawl might have resulted in rotator cuff problems later in my life.  We’ll never know, but I’m glad we have a swimming pool in our back yard where I can swim laps for five to six months a year.