The sound of splashing water.
The scent of chlorine.
The sound of the water polo ball
hitting the goal's tarp.
This is my utopia.
Life is good at the pool.
This evening I was feeling a little philosophical and that was my post on Instagram before I got into the pool. Sometimes we don't stop and take a moment to realize how good life is. I think back to my life before I started back in 2011 swimming at the Fontana pool. Life was ok, but I always felt something was missing. I could never quite put my finger on it, but something was out of place.
The last time I had swam regularly was in 1996 when I was swimming with a Masters swim team at the Loma Linda University Drayson Center. I let life get in the way and gave up the aquatics life. I was venturing into a new area of my professional life, and I felt that giving up swimming was a necessary sacrifice to achieving my goal. Little did I realize that how much of who I am is with swimming and the pool.
It took some obvious impending health issues for me to realize that I needed to change my lifestyle. I needed to start eating healthier and I needed to start exercising. The food part was a challenge, as I found a lot of conflicting opinion on the Internet about what constitutes a healthy meal. After talking to some friends who were diabetic, I learned that the best meal is a balanced meal. No fad diets. No starving yourself. No denying yourself. Just a little of that, a little of this, and a lot of common sense. Minimize the calories going in and maximize the calories being used.
The exercise was a different story. At this point it didn't dawn on me to check out this aquatics center in town. I tried a previous love: bicycling. I had a great time tuning up my old Klein mountain bike and making it suited for doing rides on the nearby Pacific Electric Inland Empire Trail. It became obvious that as I tried to do the rides, even when joined by my friends, I just wasn't comfortable and not having fun. I needed something else.
I tried walking but it too bored me. Even breaking out my Ipod Shuffle and loading it was some cool music wasn't bringing a smile to my face. I dreaded having to go for a walk. Then the light hit me and everything changed....
It was during sprink break 2011 and a friend had mentioned something about the new aquatics center here. I thought "Hmmmm....." and wondered if this 'aquatics center' was open twelve months a year and if they had open lap swim times. So one cold and rainy day I was driving around in the north end of town. I stopped in and talked to the young lady working at the front desk. She informed that indeed the pool was open twelve months a year for public lap swimming. The dark clouds and rain managed to produce some lightning, so it was closed at the moment, but she gave me the information with the times.
That spring break started it all. I rediscovered my love of swimming those two weeks and even surprised myself on how much I could swim. My heart had found its home.
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