Sink or Swim

Seems it took me nearly twenty years to finally understand what I’ve been doing, to finally understand where I am.
Life is an ocean. It’s vast, dangerous, and almost overwhelming at times. But it can also be enjoyable and calm when it wants to be. We’re all out there, out in the water. Some of us sink, while others of us swim out with blind faith that there is an island out in some direction.
As a child, I grew up with water. I practically lived in it - swimming lessons, beaches, backyard inflatable pools. I grew up and joined the swim team, then moved on to becoming a lifeguard. I thought I knew how to swim.
But things are different. I don’t know how to swim in life. I’ve been kicking and struggling to keep my head above the water, and all I’ve managed to do in these near twenty years of my life is to float. To drift. . .
It’s hard to watch everyone swim by you, never giving a second thought to help you out or lend a hand. Those that do don’t even know how to swim themselves, but they seem to offer their help regardless - maybe out of some feeling of obligation that they may have deep inside. Despite this, they still move on, leaving you alone in life.
I’ve come to a point in life where I need to make a choice. I can sink, I can swim, or I can continue to drift in hopes that I’ll somehow get thrown a lifesaver. I want to swim. I want to be able to learn to pull my own weight, then be able to pull the weight of others.
I want to be a true lifeguard. I want to be able to save people - lend them the hand that I wished I had gotten when I was lost. I want to be more than just “all talk”. I want to swim.
Life is tough. There is no doubt in my mind that this is some sort of trial, if not punishment. It’s meant to test us, challenge us, make us want to breakdown or quit. No one ever said it was going to be easy. We just take things like that for granted. I don’t anymore.
If it takes me the rest of my life to learn to swim, I’ll continue to learn gladly. And when I do learn to swim, I’ll help others out - teach them to swim as I do. Then I’ll swim out into the direction that feels right to me, knowing that there is an island waiting for me when I finish my set distance.

Never give up.


Live.


Swim.