In January of 2017, I was a student at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa in the Post-bachelor Special Education Certificate program and, as such, I was working on my practicum at Kailua Elementary School. I had already spent several years as a State of Hawai'i substitute teacher and I'd then taught at Dole Middle School as a long-term (long long-term....several years) substitute Special Education teacher, and my life-long dream of becoming a teacher had been reignited. I loved my students! I loved teaching! My aspiration was to become a state-certified Special Education teacher and teach until retirement.
Having completed the first year of the program, from August through December of 2016, I'd worked on my practicum under the chair of the Special Education Department at KES, and I'd had a wonderfully positive learning experience. But in January, I was transferred to work under another teacher, an older woman who was close to retirement, and who made it clearly and painfully obvious to me that she was not only not interested in the least in mentoring me through my practicum, but also that she was very insecure and perhaps even threatened by a teacher such as myself: younger and full of passion, creativity, and energy. The students loved me; she did not. She was supposed to be my "cooperating teacher;" she was not in the least little bit cooperating.
Anyways, one Monday morning, it was January 8, I entered the classroom before the students, as I usually did, and greeted her with a sunny "Good morning." Her response: "You know, I was having a good morning until you walked in." Wow. I don't remember what else went down, but by recess time, I was very stressed and near tears. I walked out and as I was meandering the grounds of the school, I thought I saw....yes....yes, it was a pool! I'd never realized that there was a very large, very beautiful pool beyond the chain-link fence which marked the border between the school grounds and the district park grounds. I knew what I wanted and need to do.
After school that day, I walked over to the pool and checked out the pool hours and rules, and early the very next morning, I jumped into that pool and I began to swim. I hadn't swum laps in....about 25 years. I was surprised...and embarrassed....at my clumsiness and inability to swim across the pool a mere 25 yards without huffing and puffing. I did that...about....20 times, perhaps....it took an hour, and then I went to work at the school. The next morning, I did the same...swam...huffing and puffing....about 20 lengths. It felt...GOOD...to be in the water...moving my body....free of the demeaning and degrading comments of the "cooperating teacher"....my mind free.....stretching...moving...my body...through the water....
I went to the pool every morning. Sans goggles and a swim cap, I never-the-less swam as best as I could for an hour or so, and then showered, changed into my school clothes, and rode my bike to the next-door school campus, with a much happier and healthier mind as well as body.
Every weekday morning, I dressed in my swimsuit and packed a bag with a towel, shampoo, conditioner, and school clothes and I swam in that pool. At first, yes, I swam clumsily and slowly, but it did not take very long for me to begin...to just begin...to feel and swim much better. It was not very long before I could swim 30 lengths instead of just 20; before I could swim 40 instead of 30...in the same one hour of time.
I was excited, but still there were mornings when I wanted to sleep longer rather than swim, when I just couldn't imagine getting into the cool water and exerting myself. There were those mornings.
I pushed myself. One thing I know is that while practice does not always make one perfect at executing any given skill or task, practice does make one BETTER at executing any given skill or task. I told myself, "You did it yesterday; you can do it today."
This is Swim Theory. If you just did it yesterday, what can prevent you from doing it today? Nothing has changed; you CAN...you ARE ABLE...to do it. Do you WANT to do it today?
I did. I knew that I did. I knew that I'd feel better if I did swim than if I did not. I would not say, "That was dumb. I wish I did not swim." I would say, "I wish I did swim this morning."
In this way, I challenged myself to swim every day. And there was more. I not only disciplined myself to swim the same number of lengths which I'd swum the previous day, I also challenged myself to swm....a few more. I'd finish 40 lengths, and I'd say to myself, "Of course, you can swim just two more lengths....to the other side and back....can you not? That is not very much; of course, you can." And I would swim to the other side and back. Well, probably I could do that again, and maybe even again. OK, then tomorrow, I'd have to swim 42 or 44 or 46. I challenged myself to swim 50 lengths, and I swam 50 lengths for a week. Then I swam 50 lengths and a few more for a week. Then I swam 60 for a week, and then 60 plus a few more for a week.
Before I knew it, I was able to swim 80 lengths....2000 yards...in that one hour of time before school. I remember the first time I did that; I was really proud of myself.
The certification program did not work out for me; that's a long story and I was very upset about it.
But I just kept swimming!
Now, I wear a silver ring that says, "Just keep swimming."
And I do!
No matter what!
Even if a doctor says, "You have cancer." Well, I swam the day before he told me that; I swam the day after, too.
I can swim today, too!
This is Swim Theory.
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