I grew up spending summers at my neighborhood pool. In fact, there were days I was IN the pool more than I was OUT. Speedos were my summer wardrobe (yeah, not the nasty European men’s style either). My family first joined Hillbrook Pool when I was 7, and even though I was a good swimmer, I will admit it: I was afraid of the deep end. Being 12 feet deep, you can understand my trepidation. The older kids played games like Shark and Marco Polo, all the while submerging and touching the drain at the bottom like sea creatures, not humans.
Coupled with the diving board that I had not attempted, the deep end taunted me as if to say, “You’re too little–too scared–you can’t do it.” And for a while, I let it defeat me. I was content to play in the shallow end and swim laps with the swim team in the rest of the pool. But something about the deep end really BOTHERED me. It was my unconquered obstacle. And as a 7 year old, those unaccomplished goals can be gigantic. And potentially defining.
Well, the rest of the story is that I finally overcame my fears of the deep end–no doubt because of the dare some obnoxious boy made–and it wasn’t scary at all. In fact, I distinctly remember thinking, “That’s it?!? Why was I so scared?” And I laughed.
Blogging every day is my modern day equivalent of a “deep end”: looming large as something I’ve never done, yet something I definitely want to do. So I’m taking the plunge by participating in February’s NaBloPoMo which I ran across on BlogHer and thought, “What the heck?” I’ve decided I’m going to jump off the diving board into the deep end and just go for it. Cannonball style. The 7 year old me would be proud š