Get ready for the ACCUPLACER, one test at a time.

Learning to Float

(1) I learned to swim at the age of thirty-four. (2) As a child, I had always found excuses to stay out of the water, and by the time I was an adult, the excuses had hardened into fear. (3) When my daughter signed up for swimming lessons, I watched from the bleachers and felt embarrassed that I could not join her. (4) A week later, I enrolled in a beginners' class for adults at the community pool.

(5) On the first night, I stood in the shallow end with six other nervous adults, all of us gripping the edge of the pool. (6) Our instructor, a retired lifeguard named Mrs. Okafor, asked us to put our faces in the water and blow bubbles. (7) It sounded easy. (8) Within seconds, however, my heart was pounding, and I came up gasping. (9) That night, I wondered whether I would ever be able to float?

(10) Mrs. Okafor never rushed us, and she never laughed when one of us panicked. (11) Each week she added one small skill, such as holding our breath, kicking while gripping the wall, or letting go of the wall for a few seconds. (12) By the sixth week, I could float on my back, and you could see the ceiling lights shimmering above me.

(13) I am still not a fast swimmer. (14) Last summer, though, I swam the length of the pool beside my daughter. (15) Swimming pools are usually kept at about 80 degrees.