Lizzy Burke & Tyler Kendall
Features Editors
Each day, Izzy, a spunky four-year-old, would run around a baseball field, dance in a theatre, and get creative during arts and crafts. When it came to swim periods, however, Izzy would turn into a tentative toddler. As we approached the beginners’ pool, Izzy would take one of our hands and look up at us with pleading eyes, giving us a simple, “Will you promise to not let go when I get in the pool?”
Being typical high school students we decided to try a typical high school summer: work at a summer camp sweating it out from nine to four, Monday through Friday. For us, the highlight of each day was the swimming periods. Though dreaded by most of our fellow counselors, we both really took to the swimming pool at camp for some reason. We personally think that it’s because we got to work in the beginners’ pool, which consists of swimmers ages four to six with barely any swimming experience. It’s a great little area – 6″2′ deep at most, and counselors had to get into the water every day to assist campers across the chlorine abyss.
The different kinds of kids that came into the beginners’ pool never ceased to amaze us. Some were so eager, jumping into the water and trying to do the freestyle but barely going anywhere until one of us came over to help. Others were more hesitant, clinging on to the side of the pool or opting to just walk to the other side, refusing to let their hair get wet. As counselors, we really loved helping out the kids – when the sessions were over and they could blow bubbles on their own, there was a sense of pride that radiated through us.
At first we weren’t sure how to help: the little kids would just look up at us with big eyes and say, “Will you help me across the pool?” But there is nothing cuter than seeing a young camper with shark hologram goggles and Batman swim shorts grab your hand and say they need your assistance. After the first week we learned how to help these campers across while teaching them the strokes – underwater swim, backstroke and freestyle. Then there was the infamous bouncing where kids had to mimic the cartoon character Tigger as they hopped across the pool. Sometimes we felt foolish, instructing the kids to “make a pizza with their arms and put it in the oven,” or to have “big bellies and eyes to the sky,” but in the end, when they finally made it to the other side on their own, we knew it was all worth it.
Let us tell you first hand, the beginners’ pool is a judgment free zone. Other staff members might walk by and see us bouncing across the water or singing funny reminders to entice a reluctant camper to go in the pool, but we just embraced the beginners’ pool way. When outsiders look at the pool, they might think the water is tainted by pee and has too many miscellaneous band-aids, but to us it has provided a summer experience where we got to help others and gain a sense that our big high school knowledge has actually had an impact on the eager youth.
As for Izzy, by the end of the summer she was doing laps on her own. Slowly but surely she was able to let go of our hands and venture into the world of being an independent swimmer.
