A Determined quest to conquer hydrophobia

I guess some folks might laugh at my extraordinary achievement (yeah! That’s how I see it!), but believe me, after twenty something years, I’m proud to have finally learnt how to survive in the aquatic dimension.
Though there were many opportunities when I was growing up, such as in the river near our previous house, the swimming (and fishing) pool in a neighbour’s house, the dam at the university I attended (greatest Uites!!!) and the U.I. Olympic size swimming pool, but I guess I never had sufficient drive and courage to pursue this dream all these previous years.

All along, I felt swimming was child’s play and that by merely watching athletes on T.V, I could reproduce what they did the moment I stepped into water.
My initial practice attempts at submerging my head in a drum (and sometimes a big bowl of water) earned poor results. I couldn’t fathom the possibility of opening one’s eyes underwater.

……Fast forward.
Then I got a new employer and was transferred into the Atlantic Ocean. (Really! This island called Bonny is not part of the Nigerian map we are familiar with.)
On a particular day, I went to dinner with my colleagues at the club-house and as we were leaving, I took notice of a piece of art. It was a very long canoe fitted with wooden men and women numbering several hundreds and paddling with all their strength in order to move the manual water vehicle. It seemed like they were trying to escape some imminent attack and disaster.

In attempting to unravel the inspiration behind this Davinci-like artistry, bingo! I realised it possibly was a piece of art reminiscent of those in the T.V series, Heroes.
It dawned on me that it might be some kind of prediction. I married this discovery with the violence and rampant militant attacks in the Niger-Delta and I couldn’t help, but deduce that all the passengers in the canoe were staff of my company trying to escape a severe militant attack (or something like that) in some titanic-like canoe (that’s probably hidden somewhere by management at the moment till judgement day when the mighty escape-canoe would be deployed)

In essence, this new intelligence informed my decision to QUICKLY learn aquatic skills that I ought to have acquired way back in time, but its never too late folks!
Before I could blink, I found out most of my colleagues could swim, or were already good swimmers. Wow! The die was cast and I knew this had to be my time!

Day 1: I raced to the pool and informed the life-guard that I was a newbie (just to ensure proper risk management practice; my life hasn’t got backup copies!), but in my mind, I believed I could do it on my own. First mistake: I climbed into the pool facing it (as if I was entering into a molue)

Second (painful) error: I just moved into the water and ‘started swimming’. You need not wonder what happened (I successfully drank several litres of chlorinated water and gasped efficiently). I had learned the hard way. I became as gentle as sheep and humbly asked the trainer to take me through the learning process step by step.

I had read the blog of one of colleagues who was determined and learned rather fast. With this at the back of my mind and against all odds, I determined to press forward (and still continued to drink and smoke additional litres of water) but like magic, I started to learn the techniques and my instructor was at the least, impressed.
Today, I can proudly float, hold my breath for extended periods, swim a few metres and look around underwater.
I’m certain some cynics out there are murmuring “what’s so special in that?” but me knows that’s really special.
I believe it takes a lot of determination to conquer your worst fears and press on. Like they say, courage is not the absence, but the mastery of fear. Hydrophobia of so many years has now become a thing of the past, and has been replaced by ‘hydro-friendly’.

Dear friends, old things have passed away and I’ve become a new creature that can live both on land and in water (at least for a few seconds!)

We all have things that we’ve always wanted to achieve, and though we may have ignored many opportunities in the past, there’s still hope. All we have to do is be determined, seize the next opportunity, and give it all we’ve got!
The dreams and desires of yesterday are not gone. Opportunities do not come only once in life. They keep coming everyday, just that people no longer recognise them.
Take hold of that opportunity today and move on to the next level.

All the best folks!