The smell of chlorine instantly hit him. His eyes watered a little as he studied his new setting. They were in a medium sized rectangular room with a small circular pool in the middle. There were a couple of nets, a long extendable pole, and two round emergency floatation devices mounted on the far wall. There were also several posters on the two adjacent walls, but the boy could not read them so he paid no attention.

            The instructor, who had also changed into a bathing suit, slid into the water then advised the others to follow. One by one each of the other kids followed her, as the boy watched. Once he was the only kid left dry, he approached the pool and looked into it. He had of course been in water before, like all children, he had taken bathes, played in the water at the beach, and even dipped into the shallow ends of some pools. But this pool was different, it did not appear to have a bottom, or at least one he could see. Fear began to rise up with in him. Then he remembered his embarrassment from before. He could not, would not, let himself be the only person not able to tie his own shorts and be the only one not to enter the pool. So without giving himself time to second guess the situation, he jumped. He felt himself glide through the air, then collide with the cool surface. Upon entering the strange new world, he closed his eyes, for they stung and appeared to be worthless anyways. Panic momentarily flooded his entire body, but it was quickly overcome by a new feeling. Complete and utter joy, like none he had ever experienced. He was flying! Hovering between the surface and the dark abyss below him, his body being held up by absolutely nothing at all. Meanwhile his sense of touch was completely engulfed by the familiar and ever so pleasant sensation which accompanies total submersion. He moved his head, and felt the water rush past. The boy wished he could stay here forever, but he knew he could not, and just as this thought crossed his mind, something began to pull around his waist, as the instructor hoisted him to the surface.

            She thought he was drowning, but in reality he was just living for the very first time. It was on this day that his life began. Years later, he would be asked to recount the details of his childhood and the first, most prominent memory that he would be able to conjure would be the one of that single hour that he had spent in his neighbor’s day care.