Just Keep Swimming

There are a few things I know I am good at in life. I am good at making and keeping friends- I just love people. Second- I am good with food. I love to eat food. I love to make food. And I love to share food with people. Thirdly- I am good at working out. I am a person who has lots of energy and I need to workout in order to keep myself happy and energized. I like all forms of working out from Dancing, running, workout classes, Pilates, riding bikes with friends, basically I’ll try anything – and I actually enjoy it.

The last few weeks here in Paris I have been rather down. I was unsure what was wrong with me. I knew God wanted me here for this time, I knew that I was blessed, that I actually wanted to be here, and that everything was good- but I wasn’t as happy as Katie could be. Then over the weekend things started to click together for me. I missed being who I was- there are many pieces of my U.S. life missing here in Paris and I needed to find a way to get them back- to get myself back.

I have friends here- I am not a complete loner- but life happens and it’s hard to find a good time for everyone to get together. I needed to be more intentional about meeting up with people my age. That was the first step. Eating was still happening and plenty of it. I am in France after all – Bread (check), Cheese (check, check), wine (check, check, check). So the eating was still in balance- but the working out had fallen to the way-side, or away altogether. I am not going to list for you all the excuses reasons, but tell you what I did to resolve this issue that had thrown my entire personality off the tracks.

Once the light clicked that it was the lack of working out that was making me most miserable in my own skin here in France, I decided I needed to workout and get me back to being happy go lucky me. After dance class on Sunday a girl mentioned she went swimming and I thought- “I want to go swimming!” I found my local pool and it’s only a block and a half from my apartment. I couldn’t wait to be a fish in the water swimming free!

When I arrived at the pool, I was warned me that the water was cold. I shrugged and continued on my way thinking I could just warm up as I swam a few laps. I head to the pool, and felt it with my hand and thought, “not too bad.” I then jumped in and suddenly felt like Rose when the titanic sank and she couldn’t breathe due to the freezing temperature of the water. Gasping for breath and trying to get warm I thought about how there were other people in the water, it couldn’t be that bad- but these people must have really been polar bears cause this water was glacial.

After swimming a few laps I did finally get warmed up. Now, at this pool there were no ropes to divide the swimming lanes. It was all just open and you could swim wherever you would like. Not having dividers is fine- as long as people know how to swim in a straight line. At one point the girl who would have been two lanes down while doing the breast stroke found her way into what would be my lane and thus incidentally frog kicked me in the side of my ribs. I then simply moved over some more and hoped she would go back over two lanes.

My next crazy swimmer run in was again with a lady doing the breast stroke (apparently the breast stroke is more common than freestyle here). We were both headed toward one another and as she pulled the water down and around her outstretched arms had grazed over my butt. Okay- I know I am from San Diego, but I am not the Shamu petting zoo people!

My favorite part (insert sarcasm here) with the lack of lane division, was the young girl who found it appropriate to hangout in my lane. I do believe she swam half a lap at one point but the rest of the time she simply hung on the wall where I am supposed to turn kick off of and chat with her friends who sat on the benches. My next lap, she was dropping her key and diving down to pick it up while I was then swimming above her, hoping as she came up her head would not ram into my stomach. There was not a lack of open space in the pool- if she didn’t realize that fact, I did and I moved down to avoid her. The best part- she then too moved down because her friends were now getting in, this is when she began the floating leisurely at the end of my lane. I just wished she would sink. In a country as formal as France, this girl lacked all swimming etiquette.

What I didn’t understand about the girl was that this was the “lap pool.” There were other pools for her to “float” within. There was a pool for just hanging out. There was a pool just for diving. There was even a pool for those under six years old. After the floating girl left, then came the water polo boys. They were throwing around their ball, sometimes landing on my head or requiring me to toss the ball in their direction mid-stroke. I didn’t mind them really because they stayed in an area of the pool where people weren’t swimming. They were causing no harm or disruption they were just having fun.

After what seemed to be an adventurous hour of swimming, or swimming for survival(Swimming in the pool seemed to have more turbulence than swimming in the pacific.) I left feeling good. I felt like me and as though I had done something and done something well. In that hour in the pool I was able to slightly shift the tables and gain a part of me back. It made me think of Dori from Finding Nemo and say to myself, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming,” and I know in time I will make it through all of this too.

Hey Mr Grump Gills
You know what you gotta do when life gets you down?
Just keep swimming
Just keep swimming
Just keep swimming swimming swimming
What do we do we swim, swim, swim
OH HO HO How I love to swim
When you WAAAAAANNTTT to swim you want to swim