My First Swimming Lesson

A story written at age ten.

When I had my first swimming lesson I was very scared of the water. Oh boy, I was shivering a lot. My mother tricked me by taking me to a fairly deep stream. We took a drink and suddenly she jumped in and swam to the other side. Surely I would not like to lose my mother. I got stiff as ever. Slowly my mother went around and came close. Then she pushed me in. I heard a loud noise like thumping. I began drifting down stream so I tried killing the water, but instead of killing it I was really swimming. Now I am king of the hard stuff as well as the watery stuff. I think I am the greatest.

13 thoughts on “My First Swimming Lesson

  1. “Killing the water” is the best original description of learning to swim that shall ever be written. I am sure you have killed many other fears since them and you can’t be too far from being the “greatest” still!

  2. At first I thought it was not too wise of your mother to push you in–but at the end, you say “I think I am the greatest.” Any kid who can say that must be pretty well-adjusted!

  3. Wow. This story so clearly shows the connection between the language of poetry and the language of childhood. Just a few well placed line breaks and this is a terrific poem.

  4. Antonia- seeing your name here made me grin from ear to ear! What a neat way of seeing that connection between childhood and poetry!

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