This summer was spectacular. I felt far better than in the spring, enjoyed my full load of summer classes, and still had time to engage socially and journal about everything. One of the most special parts of the season was volunteering with a local refugee ministry's Read and Swim program. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, kids would read aloud to tutors, and if they participated each day, they got to swim at a nearby Christian camp on Thursday. I volunteered last year as a reading tutor. This year, because of schedule conflicts, I only got to help tutor a handful of times, but I was able to work as a swimming instructor every Thursday, and this was a tremendously rewarding experience.
I do not have a promising history with swimming pools. When I was three or four, I slipped into the deep end at a friend's pool party, and the experience traumatized me. I developed a fear of putting my face in the water, and even though I overcame this sufficiently to be baptized at age six, I violently hated my swimming lessons at the YMCA. To this day, when I walk through their double doors and smell the chlorine, I have physical anxiety symptoms and feel like a fight or flight response kick in. I do have good memories from pool play with friends, and I am grateful for sufficient training to avoid drowning, but I have never enjoyed swimming as a recreational activity.
This summer, during the first hour of the swimming program, I would work with different little ones. For the older girls' swim time, I helped the same girl every time. It was amazing to see her improve week by week, and to realize that even though I'm still not a great swimmer, those YMCA classes gave me the language and drills necessary to instruct someone else in how to swim. It was extraordinary, by the end of the summer, to see this girl swimming around the pool and to think that I, who had never even liked swimming, had taught her how to do this. It was such a blessing to rewire my mental associations with swimming, make great memories, and invest in others' lives.
Last summer, I got involved in this refugee program because of my friend Sophie. She wasn't here this summer, because she was involved in a local church's mission project, but I got to hang out with her twice more before she went back to school. I took this next picture in a parking lot by the coffee shop where we met up.
I submitted this in a library staff summer reading "bookface" contest.
I had a dogsitting opportunity in a neighborhood with a lake. It was SO BEAUTIFUL.
The eclipse!
I took the next few photos on a walk to a library staff meeting. I love how different this tree looks on opposite sides of the rising sun.
Because of the expansion project at the library, that back wall is now knocked out, and the lawn is a red clay construction zone. I'm glad I got a picture of the area before that.
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