chin up, tummy up, feet up.

tuck float.

back float (chin up, tummy up, feet up).

kick kick kick.

put your face in the water and blow bubbles.

if you want to go to the deep end you’ve gotta do the swim test.

an odd array of phrases, although all relating to water and swimming.  they are  phrases i get to hear spoken to my two first grade classes as they participate in the 10 days or so of swimming.  

a class of 25 students.  a class of 20 students.  when swimming is done for the rooms i work in i will probably have heard these phrases 20 or so days in a row (excluding weekends).   it’s not so much the phrases though that seem to get stuck in my head – it’s the kids and how they act in the water, how their clothes end up back on them in a more haphazard way than when they first showed up to school.

 it’s there lack of fear, it’s their lack of worry about what people are thinking about the way they look or what they do.  it shows up in unexpected ways.  i watch as over and over again they jump into the water off the sides and the diving boards.  i watch as the ones who can’t swim well are being taught by the ones who sometimes can swim a bit better.  i watch as they smile and splash, as their skin gets red from smacking the water at a wrong angle.  i watch as they try days in a row to pass the swim test – not giving up until they do.  i watch a simple determination.  

perhaps my favorite thing to see after the days swimming lesson is over is when these little 6 & 7 year old people come out of the locker room.   their hair is wet and messy, tangled and dripping, the boys want mohawks and the girls want braids and pony tails.  there’s a tag showing itself right underneath someone’s chin – he’s got his shirt on backwards and inside out.  jeans are tucked into white scrunchy socks like it’s the newest fashion trend.  goggles still adorn faces as we make the trek across the street to the primary building.  we must be a sight.  

i love these images.  i love the innocence that is shown in them.  i love that there isn’t concern or time spent on the way they look as they step out of their swimming gear into their street clothes. i love that there isn’t talk or comment about inside-out shirts, or socks over jeans, or goggles on faces.  it doesn’t matter.  it doesn’t change who they are as people.  

i wonder where this changes.  when do these little people being to notice that what’s on the outside matters.  that having their jeans tucked into their socks isn’t cool. when does the noticing being, the snickering happen, when someone looks ‘different’ than what is normal, or cool, or accepted.  it just makes me wonder.  i hope that there are kids who keep their chins up – and continue to be who they are – whether who they are is culturally cool or not – i hope they set a new standard of an inside character matters mentality.  i hope they start new trends. 

i am reminded by these little people – who are so moldable – that i am a person whom they are watching.  i am sure there are people watching you too – what are we showing them?  what matters to me? what matters to you?  maybe we too need to hold our chin up and be who we really are, and wear goggles on our face outside the pool if we feel like it (i’m not saying i’m doing this – but you get the idea right?).