‘Drowning Calmly’ to Swimming between Islands with Joy
“I thought these swim lessons would teach me to ‘drown calmly.’ ” This is what Noressa told me at our holiday celebration for teachers and spotters. Spotters are student graduates that come back and volunteer to help with beginning classes. Noressa is one of our spotters.
Noressa’s Story
Her story, however, starts back when she was a child and her mother told the very excited little Noressa, “Today I will teach you how to swim.” Noressa was excited but unaware that her mom would teach her in the manner she had been taught: sink or swim. Her mom grew up around water in the Philippines and you either learned to survive or … well, I’m not sure of the rest of that sentence. For Noressa and her two sisters, it was to be afraid.
When one of Noressa’s friends, Margaret, became a teacher with Orca Swim School, she began to talk about this new way to learn to swim. Margaret had taught and participated in swimming throughout her youth and young adulthood. After many years away she wanted this fulfilling part of her life back again and learned a new way to teach adults who are beginning or afraid. After many conversations, Margaret persuaded Noressa to try swimming one more time.
Noressa was resigned to the fact that she would never learn to swim. She was told that skinny people like her don’t float and therefore can’t swim. She was very nervous coming to the first night of class. Noressa expected that Margaret, a kind and trustworthy friend, would maybe teach her to drown calmly or correctly, but would not likely teach her how to swim.
“Then Margaret started throwing toys to the bottom and everyone was diving down to get them. I peeked under because it looked like so much fun.”
Grounding Principle of Doing What is Fun
As a self-proclaimed goal-oriented person, Noressa diligently did the steps of the class. It was not until the games came out that the light really clicked on. Margaret had continued to make the ground-rule invitation to only do what was fun. Because when students have fun, we find that learning will always happen. The game is where she set her goals aside and said, “I just want to play.” She did so and suddenly understood the grounding principle of doing what is fun.
Noressa explains, “Once I understood how much fun the water is and how much learning happens when playing, everything else opened up. When working on the back float or bobbing, I learned to stop or change the subject when I was pushing. Later I was curious again about those subjects and could learn more.”
Realizing Her Goal
The goal then changed from learning to “drown calmly” to learning to swim in the ocean. She got to realize this goal in Hawaii. She used the system she learned in the beginning class to figure out the fun in the ocean. “It was so amazing under there with all the fish!”
Noressa’s next fun goals are swimming across Lake Washington with a Children’s Hospital fundraising Park to Park lake swim, and her dream vacation to the Philippines and the small islands where “The Beach” with Leonardo DiCaprio was shot.
Listen to the conversation with Cori and Noressa about her swim journey… CLICK HERE.
