Fear of the Water Essay -- Personal Narrative Writing

It was three weeks before my third birthday. The razor sharp air seemed to laugh at my winter coat, gloves, and hat. My Mother was pushing me along in a stroller at Carson Park. Walking briskly along the pond trail to keep warm, hiding that she did not want to be there. She knew that I loved to come look at the pond in the winter, and she braved the weather because of my birthday. I looked up with my curious eyes, trying to figure out why it was that the ducks left in the winter, why the water looked hard, and how people walked on the water like in the Bible. My Mother and I braved the weather for a whole day on the pond, and as the evening came, we decided to make our way home. She thought it would be nice if we took the long way out of the park and cross the bridge, and I couldn’t be more grateful, water mesmerized me. As we crossed the bridge, my world came to a halt. A group of crows feeding on a dead carcass scattered over my head. A man was standing on the oth er side of the bridge, with a shiny piece of metal in his hand. I didn’t understand, but my Mom knew that we were in danger, she knew what he held was a knife. â€Å"LubDUB.† My heart screamed out. I knew something was wrong now. The man yelled and screamed word that I had never heard. My Mother secured herself as a barrier between the man and me. His black eyes met my confused scared eyes. â€Å"Don’t hurt my mommy!† I screamed. There was no reaction, no movement. The only sound was the crows cawing below. Then the man said, â€Å"How would you like to take a swim,† in a quaint, barely audible voice. For a split second there was no movement, and then the man lunged at my Mother, and with the knife at her neck tipped me into the pond. I felt as if ... ...need air quite yet. There would be plenty of breathing after this Slam! My competitor and I seemed to slam our hands into the wall simultaneously. I didn’t know who won. I looked at the score board. Looked at the scoreboard and it read, â€Å"Lane:3 Swimmer:Meier,usa TIME:44.9 Place:1.† Victory. That was the first race of the rest of my life. In my junior year, my third year of high school, I was defeated by the member of the Greenwich Black Crows, but I still received third place in the state. Exactly three years after my second place performance earned me a spot on a collegiate swim team, it was me on the podium at trials. My victory wasn’t over my competitors, but the water, the water that beat me so many times before, it came down to a 43 second race in the Olympic trials and the three elements, one hydrogen, two oxygen, that I battled for so long.