How I Learned to Swim.
Leonard Morse
12/21/2010

Personal Narrative Short Paper
How I had to learn to swim.
Learning something new for me can usually be somewhat of an experience that’s
frightening for me at various times in my life. One of the most difficult things that I had
to do was learn how to swim because I was pushed into a pool when I was around 12 or
13 years old and it scared the daylights out of me. I was afraid of deep waters, but after
being pushed into the pool as horseplay from my friends, I came to the conclusion that I
had to learn to swim to remove the fear and phobias that I had. I also started to lift
weights and exercise to help me to become physically stronger as I was a very skinny kid
growing up. As I began to learn how to swim, I became more confident in myself as a
person. As I stated earlier, situations new to me always make me a bit nervous, and my
first swimming lesson was no exception. After I changed into my swimming trunks in the
locker-room, I stood by the side of the pool, cold and scared waiting for the physical
education teacher who was teaching us the swimming lessons and the other students to
show up. After a couple of minutes the teacher came over. He introduced himself to us,
and to the other students who were waiting. As I remember, there were girls in my class
and many of them knew how to swim and I felt kind of embarrassed because they knew
how and I didn’t. I began to feel more at ease once I started to focus on what the
instructor was saying to all of us and not being easily distracted by looking at the other
advanced swimmers. As we were all in the pool getting our swimming lessons using the
rubber floats to help us stay afloat, I remember one of the other students had already
taken the beginning class once before, took a kickboard and went splashing off by
himself. I was told to hold on to the side of the pool and shown how to kick for the
12/21/2010

Personal Narrative Short Paper
How I had to learn to swim.
Learning something new for me can usually be somewhat of an experience that’s
frightening for me at various times in my life. One of the most difficult things that I had
to do was learn how to swim because I was pushed into a pool when I was around 12 or
13 years old and it scared the daylights out of me. I was afraid of deep waters, but after
being pushed into the pool as horseplay from my friends, I came to the conclusion that I
had to learn to swim to remove the fear and phobias that I had. I also started to lift
weights and exercise to help me to become physically stronger as I was a very skinny kid
growing up. As I began to learn how to swim, I became more confident in myself as a
person. As I stated earlier, situations new to me always make me a bit nervous, and my
first swimming lesson was no exception. After I changed into my swimming trunks in the
locker-room, I stood by the side of the pool, cold and scared waiting for the physical
education teacher who was teaching us the swimming lessons and the other students to
show up. After a couple of minutes the teacher came over. He introduced himself to us,
and to the other students who were waiting. As I remember, there were girls in my class
and many of them knew how to swim and I felt kind of embarrassed because they knew
how and I didn’t. I began to feel more at ease once I started to focus on what the
instructor was saying to all of us and not being easily distracted by looking at the other
advanced swimmers. As we were all in the pool getting our swimming lessons using the
rubber floats to help us stay afloat, I remember one of the other students had already
taken the beginning class once before, took a kickboard and went splashing off by
himself. I was told to hold on to the side of the pool and shown how to kick for the