What Didn't I Learn at the Oak Lane House?

I am insomniac. I also sleep with an incredibly loud snorer. As i tossed and turned last night, I kept thinking about people and places and moments I hadn't thought about in years. I was so excited to get a chance to write another story today. My problem became which to chose. I decided that since I wrote about someone from college yesterday I would write about someone from childhood today.

When I was young, no older than 7 or 8, I had an experience that made me realize how strong I could be. My grandparents had a pool and since my mom worked during the day, Brittany and I stayed at my grandparents a lot. Being there meant we were in the pool a lot. We were all good swimmers. Add to that the laissez faire parenting attitude of most of the adults I grew up with, and you get "the story." One afternoon my younger cousin (no more than 2 or 3) and I were left out at the pool alone while the adults went in to fix us lunch. My cousin Ryan fell into the pool in the deep end and found out he could not swim. I was already in a tube and swiftly paddled over to him, reached in with my legs to pull him up and held on to him yelling for help.

To get to the pool you had to go out the back door, across the yard, up the stairs, across the tennis courts and in the pool gate. I don't remember how long it took for someone to get there, but to my 8 year old self, it felt like an eternity. Eventually someone came, Ryan was fine, and we all spent the rest of the day in the pool.

Clearly I am not 7 or 8 here, but it is me at Gma & Gpa's pool

I remember only bits and pieces of that experience but I distinctly remember feeling so proud afterwards. The good kind of pride, "And not like the kind in the bible that turns you bad." I remember feeling important. I remember feeling like I had done something for someone else that was monumental. It seemed amazing to be the only one who could help, and actually summing the strength to do it. It was a lesson in self-esteem, I think, although that phrase doesn't seem exactly right. Maybe more like self-confidence. Either way, it was a great day at the pool (and the reason I am a mix of being totally obsessive at the pool one minute qnd totally aloof the next).

Thanks Ryan for helping me have such a great defining moment as a young girl.