My nights at the pool are never dull…
During tonight’s swimming pool excursion, I befriended a 7 year-old little girl named Avery. I call her “Guru”. She taught me a valuable lesson tonight at the pool that I shan’t soon forget. Let me enlighten you, as she enlightened me. So the night starts off pretty normal; Enter the swimming area, get in hot tub that was way too hot, and plan on jumping straight in the pool after about 10 or so minutes. A woman climbs in and I begin to discuss with her about this little girl I saw jumping off the diving board, soon found out the name was Avery. She was not only jumping off the diving board, but she was doing so off of the 12 foot board. Now I have jumped off this board before, but like I say everytime, “I NEVER would have done that at that age.” The woman informs me that she is there watching the little girl for her friend and we start into a conversation. Avery and her two friends, whom the woman is also watching, come and join us in the tub. Avery overhears us talking about her and decides to pipe in. “Why wouldn’t you go off the board when you were my age? It’s not scary!” “It would have been to me! I did not like heights!” “Can you do it now?” “Well ya, I’ve done it.” “I wanna see you do it!” “Maybe later…” So “later” came around when my friend Raif and I went boarding. I had already jumped off twice when Avery came by. “Have you gone yet?” “Yeah! Like, twice!” “Well do it again! I wanna see you cannonball!” “Okay fine…” So I scaled the ladder once again, bound and determined to show this little girl that I could do it. I get to the end of the board, bend the knees, and launch off the board. As I watch the water come to my face I think, “Ya better tuck your legs in.” So I did, and felt very accomplished. As I emerge from what would have been a watery death had I not come up, I look to this small child for encouragement… What I got was much more funny… “What was that?” “That was a cannonball!” “No it wasn’t! You didn’t grab your knees!” “Oh, I didn’t? My bad… I’ll fix that…” So standing at the board-ladder in a line that consisted of Avery, Raif and I, Avery asks a series of questions… Very interesting and candid questions… “How old are you?” “21!” “O_O… Really?” “Yep!” “That’s probably why you can’t do it.” “What? Why do you say that?” “Because your too old. And too big.” “Too old and big, huh?” “Yeah, too chubby.” “Chubby?” “You can’t tuck your knees in!” Okay, it took everything I had not to laugh at this point. Reminded me of the story my mother told me about. I was 4 and Mom was having some sort of gathering at the house. She had a female friend who was a large woman. I don’t think I know this woman, and I most certainly didn’t know her then. I was told that I saw her, walked around her twice, looked up and said, “You’re da biggest lady I ever saw!” Yeah, not one of my finer moments… Anyway, so I was bound and determined to impress this little girl and get that perfect cannonball. After many attempts to get it right, she stopped me so she could give me some information. “Are you married?” “Nope.” “Do you have a girlfriend?” “No.” :( “Well, when you get one, be sure to tell her that you can’t do a cannonball.” “Oh, okay I’ll keep that in mind when I first start dating her. ‘Oh, by the way, you need to know this. I cannot cannonball worth the life of me and I hope you can accept that.’ Correct?” “Yes, perfect.” “Okay, I’ll make a mental note of that and be sure that I do it…” After many attempts and two sore knees later, I finally made my Cannonball Guru proud! *I rise from the water* “How was that one?” “Good job! You did it!” *thumbs up* “YES!” *Michael Phelps fist pump* “Good job!” After the lessons had been taught, and the knees abused, I succeeded in making a small child proud of me. Hopefully this will not be the last time I learn a valuable lesson from this small child, who’s name I later found out was Avery. But I’ll just call her Guru…
