While I’ve never had any problems with swimming or being in
the water, I have been afraid of drowning for as long as I can remember. This
fear was only cemented further into my mind when I visited Mount Olympus for
the first time when I was ten. My parents had planned the trip for mid-August
back in July, and I had been anxiously waiting for the day that we would go.
On the day of, I woke up bright and early, which is not like
me at all, and eagerly packed my things so that we could leave. Soon enough we
were off to the park and everything was going great. When we arrived, my
brothers and I jumped out of the car and rushed into the park, unable to
contain our excitement. The day was shaping up to be a good one as I rushed
into the wave pool. Instantly I wanted to go out as far as possible in order to
get the huge waves. So I went, past three feet, then four, then five, and
finally stopping at the six feet marker. It’s important to note that when the
waves were going, It was more like four feet (when they weren’t crashing into
you).
I swam, jumped, and “Super-Manned” through the waves until I
felt the urge to go even deeper: I wanted go right out to the buoy. With that
in mind, I swam towards it, fighting through the progressively larger waves all
the way. Upon finally arriving, I already felt fatigued from the swim and doubted
the intelligence of going out so far. As the thought crossed through my head, I
was struck by an enormous wave that sucked my under the depths of the water. An
invisible force stopped me from being able to come to the surface as I
struggled under the waves. The initial crash had knocked most of the air out of
me, and I was beginning to blackout when finally I managed to escape the grasp
of the wave and surface. Gasping for air, I looked around to find that I was
standing in just over one foot of water – I had been sucked under the water and
carried nearly a 100 feet back to the entrance of the wave pool!
Ever since that day, I have been especially scared of
drowning as I know how frightening and out of control you feel being trapped
under the water. Luckily it isn’t something that affects me on a day-to-day
basis, but every time I go swimming there is part of me is always thinking
about my trip to Mt. Olympus.
