By Sabrina Church

I do not know about you guys, but I cannot enter summer without thinking about summertime as a child. I have lived in Kernersville my entire life, and I love my summertime memories. The majority of my childhood summer memories include lots of time in Kernersville pools.

This one particular summer memory stands out in my head every year. When I was 5 years old my family and I went on a beach vacation. We went out on the beach, then when we were done, we went to our hotel’s pool. My mom washed the sand off my feet, then she rinsed my sister’s feet. While I was waiting on them, I watched my big brother run to the water slide, he slid down and hit the water and swam all through the pool. It looked like a lot of fun, and without permission, I ran to the waterslide and slid down as well. The difference between my brother and I was that I could not swim, and he could! When I hit the pool water I immediately started to drown. I could not even come up for air! A sweet lady who was lying by the pool jumped in and saved my life. Oh, what a scary time that was!! My mom ran to me and hugged me tighter than she had ever hugged me before.

As soon as we got back into Kernersville my mom enrolled my sister and I into swim lessons. There were a lot of kids in our swim class. Our swim instructor had all the kids line up by the wall of the pool and had us blow bubbles into the water. While we practiced our bubbles our instructor took kids one by one and taught them how to float.

I remember as I was against the wall waiting for my turn, I struggled to stay above water. Many of the kids were able to stand up, but I was so short I could not reach the bottom to stand. The kid next to me was also too short, so they tried to hold onto my shoulder. They would push me down into the water as they came up for air. I was not strong enough to keep us both above water. That memory comes to mind at the beginning of every summer, and the more I think about it, the more I learn from it. You see, life can often be the same way. We rush into things, and we get caught drowning because we did not take time to be properly equipped. Sometimes we find ourselves hardly staying afloat in life, yet we try to help others keep their heads above water, even when we are struggling to keep our own heads above water.

That memory comes to mind at the beginning of every summer, and the more I think about it, the more I learn from it.

You see, life can often be the same way. We rush into things, and we get caught drowning because we did not take time to be properly equipped. Sometimes we find ourselves hardly staying afloat in life, yet we try to help others keep their heads above water, even when we are struggling to keep our own heads above water.

Every so often, we need to reevaluate our lives and identify areas that we ourselves need to work on. Once we become stronger in those areas then we can successfully help others. Life is much harder when two people are drowning at the same time. Learn to “swim,” so that you are able to help others “swim” as well. What an impact we can have in our community if those who are strong help those who are weak!