Swim Swimmin' with Mary Hadley

Well, it just happened, the first swim of the summer season. Mary Hadley and I went down to the Arkansas Athlete's Outreach Complex to swim with the big kids. The Junior High Summer interns planned a big swim/Dodge Ball party and we were invited.

Mary Hadley loves swimming, but she is a little scared so she holds on tight when we are in the pool. We spent most the evening with her standing on the side of the pool and me in the pool reassuring her that I was going to catch her if she would just jump. We worked and worked at it and by the end of the night, she was getting a little more brave.

We came up with another really fun game. Mary Hadley would stand on the steps and she would push me over and I would fall into the water. MH thought that was a riot. In between the high level negotiations between me and MH trying to convince her to jump in the pool and her shoving me into the pool, we had a great time.

The only problem was since it is so early in the season, the water was a little cool, and it was sprinkling so there was no sun. It was no time before MH's teeth were chattering. I kept asking her if she as cold, but she kept saying "no". She wouldn't allow herself to feel the cold if that meant that she might have to get out of the pool.

I am going to continue to work with her so that she can learn how to swim. I know she will have even more fun when she learns how to swim. And, if she can have more fun than she had tonight, that would be saying something.