"Hey Buddy, you ready to swim?"
He hid behind his mom's leg and held on tight. His name was Dylan Cross and his mother signed up for 16 private swim lessons. I wondered why he was so scared of the pool. This little tan boy had nothing but fear in his eyes. So I pulled his mother to the side and asked her if Dylan had ever had swim lessons here at Philadelphia Sports Clubs before.
She said "No he hasn't, he has only been in the pool once when he was five and he nearly drowned to death."
The first lesson I couldn't even get him in the pool. The second lesson I convinced him to put hit feet in on the steps and squirt me with a blue shark squirt toy. At the end of the fifteenth lesson his mother approached me and stated,
"Tommy, thank you so much for everything, he really looks up to you and is for the first time proud of himself."
At the end of the last lesson Dylan swam on his own for the first time of his life. His mother was in tears and his father was videotaping with tears slowing running down his cheeks. His mother came up to me crying her heart out and told me that I have made a huge impact on his life and she insisted to give me a fifty-dollar tip.
As Dylan left I felt like I have done something right. I never thought I could make such an impact on someone's life. After the long good-bye's I finished up with the rest of my lessons. I went to work the next day and Dylan showed up during my break to say hi. I talked to him for a while about school and friends until his mother showed up and told me that she had signed him up for a few more lessons. I said,
"Alright buddy, now I get to see you for a couple more weeks!"
"No not a couple weeks I'm sorry to say, but a couple months!" his mother replied.
She signed him up for forty more lessons! Dylan is seven and I have been his swimming teacher for five and a half months now. Even though Dylan may only be seven years old his is swimming at a twelve-year-old level.
I will never forget Dylan,