Growing up my friends and I always went to the local pool. It was a large pool spanning from inches deep to 12 feet deep with a large sandy area to give the feeling of a beach. My brother and I learned to swim at this pool. I remember the mandatory breaks when everyone had to get out of the water. Every few breaks or so they would have test for anyone of the kids that wanted to swim in the deep end but hadn’t yet completed the 8th grade.
My friends and I used to ride our bikes to the pool and immediately go to the deep end. Being middle schoolers when we started this habit we were almost always stopped by lifeguards and question about the rules and if we had passed the test. Although most of us had not taken the swim test we decided we were mature enough to swim in the deep end. My first time jumping into the deep end I was filled with excitement and was eager to be in the cool water. A longtime friend of mine was somewhat of a “scaredey-cat”, she was mildly freaking out about jumping into “such deep water”. My other friends and I – being the reckless 12 year-olds we thought we were – sucked in a deep breath of air and plunged ourselves in to the cool water. With a huge splash I was submerged in the chlorine. The cool water after being in the hot sun gave me goosebumps. My lungs burned in the best way as I started to head to the top towards air. This became an addictive rush of jumping in, swimming back up, climbing out of the pool, and jumping back in again.
My 12 year-old self didn’t realize then that is exactly how I live my life. I am not the kind of person to ease into life. I think it is so important to throw yourself fully into anything you try. When I came to the university of Dubuque I had two options, go to class, practice, and my dorm room, or I could join clubs and organizations and meet people with similar interests and make friends. For me, that meant diving head first into the UD community. This is one of the best decisions I have ever made.
Putting your whole self into everything you do is a valuable skill that anyone can have. Challenge yourself to try something new and put everything you have into it, and you may find out you have a talent or interest that you could have never experience because you were the scaredey-cat friend too afraid to jump into the deep end or the pool.
