DEEP WATER

The writer (W.O. Douglas) decided to learn to swim. An association named Y.M.C.A had a swimming
pool. It was in the American state of Yakima. This association offered an opportunity to learn swimming.
The writer narrates an incident from the childhood. The writers father took him to the beach on California.
They were standing together in the surf. The writer was clinging to his father. But a strong wave came and
swept over him. He was buried in water. His breath was gone. His father laughed but he was frightened. It
left in his heart a fear of water.
Later, when he joined the Y.M.C.A swimming pool, the unpleasant memories of childhood came back to
him. They restarted his fears.
But one-day a terrible thing happened. When he went to the pool, there was no one there. The place was
quiet. He was afraid of going in the water alone. So he sat at the edge of the pool. Suddenly, a big boy
came. He picked the writer up and tossed him into the pool.
The writer went at once to the bottom of the pool. He used all his strength to spring upwards. He came up
slowly he opened his eyes. He could see nothing but water. He lost his breath. His lungs ached. He was
getting dizzy. He tried to cry in fear but no sound came. His leg seemed to be paralyzed. He made another
jump upwards. But all his efforts failed. Then he stopped all his efforts. He relaxed. There was no more
panic. A Blackness swept over the writers brain. He began to feel sleepy. But luckily, before he was dead,
he was taken out the pool and saved.
After that incident, a haunting fear remained in his heart. He never went back to the pool. He feared water
and tried to avoid it.
Finally one October, he got an instructor. The instructor was very experienced and patient person. He used
a novel method to train the writer in swimming. He put a belt round the writer. A rope was attached to the
belt. It went through a pulley the pulley ran on an overhead cable. The instructor held on to the end of the
rope. He practiced for many weeks. The tension began to grow less. He repeated the exercise hundreds of
time. Bit by bit, he lost some of his old fear.
At last, after many months of hard practice, the instructor said to the writer, Now you can swim. The
instructors job was finished.
Now the writer would try to swim alone in some river and lakes. Sometimes little memories of the old fear
would come back. But he would drive them out of his mind at once. At last he was able to conquer all fear
of deep water. He could swim miles across big river and lakes.
The writers experience of swimming had deep meaning for him. There is terror only in the fear of death. In
the death, there is peace. Therefore, all one needs to fear is fear itself. His experience tells us that with
determination we can overcome our fears.