That’s right. You read the title correctly.

This after­noon, in the swim­ming pool at the Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan North Cam­pus Recre­ational Build­ing, a mer­maid was born. Who am I talk­ing about? Me, of course.

It all started with my won­der­ful boyfriend and his audac­ity to believe he can suc­cess­fully teach me how to swim. Today was our first swim date. And this is what happened…

We both went into the water. I was ner­vous but he took my hand, and as we splashed in the water together I remem­bered that I was actu­ally a Princess of the Sea and my legs turned into a fin (sparkly ones, too) and we pas­sion­ately kissed. He said he still loves me even as a mer­maid. Then we swam around a bit more, did a few hun­dred thou­sand laps together, and then went out for some nice post-swimming KFC.

If you are a sea­soned detec­tive or pos­sess an excep­tion­ally keen mind you might be sus­pect­ing the above story. You are, indeed, cor­rect (except the KFC part — yum…). A few min­utes in the water and what my boyfriend found was not an Asian ver­sion of Daryl Han­nah, but me, his far-from-being-Daryl Hannah-girlfriend, hav­ing a panic attack.

That’s right. You read it cor­rectly. I had a panic attack in the pool.

Though not my first panic attack, this was the first time in a long time I had one. And the very first in the pool. My past panic attacks had been mostly just phys­i­cal (numb­ness) but this time was the first time it was accom­pa­nied by fear. I knew I was safe, though, since I was stand­ing in 3 ft of water and my boyfriend was stand­ing right next to me. I knew I didn’t have to be afraid but I was. Water — espe­cially putting my face under water — had scared me as a child. But I had done it since, and I was really not expect­ing a panic attack today. I actu­ally think I pan­icked a bit more after I real­ized that I was hav­ing the panic attack that I absolutely did not expect to happen.

Thank good­ness my boyfriend is not the pan­icky, dra­matic type. He was calm. He was sup­port­ive. Aside from not hav­ing a seda­tive on him to dis­pense to me, he was every­thing a pan­ick­ing girl needed. He was totally my Prince Eric.

After about 30 min­utes I was calm, my numb­ness was gone, and was able to splash around using a kick board. I was actu­ally hav­ing fun towards the end.

I really want to learn how to swim, and I don’t want today’s event to pre­vent me from going back. My past panic attacks were no big deal and they went away. For­tu­nately my boyfriend hasn’t given up on me either, so I’ll keep going, but…anyone know any tricks to calm your mind?

Today’s event did have a pos­i­tive out­come too. A lit­tle bit of splash­ing is all I did and I’m already feel­ing it in my thighs! Here I come 1980’s Daryl Han­nah! (Actu­ally she looks mighty good today too…)

So, I apol­o­gize. I lied in the begin­ning. A mer­maid was not born today.
Maybe I can com­bine the ugly duck­ling story with this one…like the ugly inca­pable mer­maid who can’t swim in the begin­ning but…
Any­hoo, hope­fully water and I will become good friends soon!
Wish me luck :)

Tags: swimming