The courage to go into the sea

Take your kids to the beach for a swim. I took off my shoes and was about to walk from the beach to the water when my husband’s colleague happened to come over. So, we stopped to say a few words.

My husband's colleagues saw us preparing to go into the sea and sighed twice, "You are so brave." I just smiled and responded, but I didn’t actually understand the meaning of that sentence. This area is a famous bathing beach. There are many people going into the sea, and it is very common. Why do you think going into the sea means you are brave?

Did he mean that there are waves in the sea and the swimming resistance is relatively high? But the buoyancy of sea water is greater than that of water in a swimming pool, so it's not difficult. And outdoors, the sky is high and the sea is vast, making people feel comfortable physically and mentally. Maybe he meant that it would be bolder to take a child into the sea? But the children have swimming rings on them, so they are very safe.

After he walked away, I asked my husband what he meant by what he just said. The husband replied that the colleague could not swim, and he thought anyone who dared to be in the water was very brave.

I suddenly understood and remembered the feeling I had when I was learning to swim. It was the first time I stood in such an open water, and I felt dizzy when I saw the endless waves. I am both scared, but also yearn to float freely on the water. Therefore, I tried to suppress my inner fear.

Later, after working hard again and again and choking on a lot of water, I finally figured out the rules. Knowing how to float and stand up freely in the water, knowing how to maintain endurance to move forward in the distance, knowing how to move the body up and down with the waves, slowly there will be no more fear. Every time you go into the water, just relax and stretch your whole body and experience the feeling of entrusting your body to the water.

Probably because it was too far away from the initial fear, I just didn’t understand what my husband and colleagues said. After being prompted, I remembered my fear of water many years ago. We live in the same world, just one step away, but have completely different feelings about the world. "Put yourself in someone else's shoes" is actually very difficult to do. You need to always put yourself in someone else's shoes and see everything from the other person's perspective in order to understand...