Whatever happened to...

Whatever happened to summer?

Long days spent at the pool and pink-iced animal cookies inhabited most of my days. Baths weren’t necessary if you had been to the pool. In my 5-year old mind, I had spent most of the day in one of the largest bathtubs around. Gator was the game of choice, and I hated it! Two kids would be the gators, and the rest of the kids would stand on the ledge of the pool. The “gators” would start in the pool on the opposite side of the kids standing on the ledge ready to jump in. Once the “gators” started swimming to their side, the kids would have to jump in and try to swim to the other side before they got them or touched the other side. If you were caught, then you turned into a gator. This all took place in the deep end, and I was never really a good swimmer so I hated it. Another memory of my days spent at the pool involves my sister, Jill, and my childhood friend, Brittany. Brittany was a pro at doing back dives off of the diving board. I had always been envious of people like her. On this particular day, Jill and Brittany were determined to get me to do one through peer pressure. Now, I competed in gymnastics so a back-handspring was no problem. Standing on the tip-end of the diving board, I psyched myself out for about a good two hours. I would swing my arms to go backwards and eventually end up jumping to the side. After much coaxing to return back to the tip-end of the diving board, I did. I was determined. Swinging my arms full force, I went backwards smacking my head on the diving board as I entered the pool. That’s right, my hands went right by the diving board, but my head was unable to clear it. Here’s the problem: back-handsprings in gymnastics are very different than back dives off the diving board. The whole dynamic of them are different. However, this was the least of my problems. The smack on my head had caused me to black out. So, there I was…sinking. Jill, being the heroic big sis, dove in and pulled me out. As you can imagine, this caused quite a commotion among the parents, especially mine. Once I was out of the pool, I was fine and somewhat embarrassed. An immediate trip to the hospital followed next. Even though the doctors said I was fine, my mom and dad wouldn’t let me go to sleep until the next night. Every precaution was taken. Since that day, I have tried to steer clear of diving boards. We don’t really get along.