Write about a specific time when you surprised yourself. By “you,” I mean either you as the writer if you’re writing nonfiction or you as a fictional character. Keep it in the first person to explore this character’s voice, and present it like you’re speaking directly to the reader. Give this exercise fifteen minutes of your attention.
Write it up and see what happens,
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Because I didn’t know how to swim I was afraid of the water : or was it because I was afraid of the water I didn’t know how to swim? At any rate everyone else was happy at the lake. Tho not unhappy I could have been more so anywhere else. And so it went into my mature years. In retrospect I am surprised to remember that this was true. Past 40 I learned to swim. Older than my classmates, older than my teacher, I learned to swim. More surprises came fast . . . I learned to dive: not jump off a diving board, but truly dive from the high board, letting the board throw me up, up, then down into deep water. I who had never ventured into water deeper than my chest was flipping into nine feet of cool, beautiful welcoming water. . . .All this was more than 30 years ago. Diving is a memory, but swimming is a joy, and our choice of residence was based on year-round accsess to an outdoor pool. Where would I be if learning to swim had not happened?