Tuesday, October 12, 2010

kayaking.

as a college student, one occasionally gets to take a random fun class, this semester i am taking kayaking!! it is the coolest class ever. basically you show up paddle around for a few hours and practice rolling and rescue techniques if you feel like it. all in all we have a grand ole time kayaking at the local lake. unfortunately, today was the last day of my kayaking class and when things come to an end i tend to think of the beginning. 
bapa and i, on the oh-chin
the first time i ever went kayaking: the summer of 2009. my dad and i went with a tour group out on the pacific ocean. we were in a green tandem sea kayak, we paddled, had a blast, and even ate fresh kelp.  oh how i love thee fresh sea kelp. :]

the first time i kayaked with this class was the pool day. this was a few weeks ago...but it was a moment of self awesomeness. everyone met at the pool and the professor had a few kayaks brought in for us to practice with. the point of pool day was for us to learn the basics in a relatively safe environment. but it wasn’t what happen during pool day that was memorable for me. 
first off you need to know i am a sucker for rules. if there is a rules board, or list of rules i will read all of them and i will follow it to the t (until i learn that no one else does then i might ignore a few). i had never been to this pool and so i followed the pool rules no questions asked. some of the ones i remember: 
pool rules:
-no street shoes
-shower before entering the pool area
-females should be wearing one piece swimsuits 
i’m sure there were a few other rules, but they are not important to the story. anyways... i wore my uber attractive reversible one piece, took off my shoes, showered, grabbed my towel, and walked out to the pool area. which would have been totally fine and i wouldn’t even remember doing so it if hadn’t been for the fact that as i looked across the ridiculously long walk way between the two olympic sized pools i saw all the members of my class sitting in street clothes, wearing shoes, and not one ounce wet. for a spilt second i frozen in place. not enough for anyone but myself to notice, but i freaked out just a bit on the inside. there i was dripping wet, cold, bare foot, and i feel it is important for you to know that i am not a thin girl. yet, i kept walking. i made the conscious decision not to be embarrassed. as it turns out, that is not the easiest choice when a group of people fully clothed people are watching you an over-weight girl walk in a just a bathing suit. about half way down the walk way the confident wonderful carefree part of myself (that took a vacation for my teen years), spoke up and said: this is who you are, you are beautiful and confident just the way you are, you may be cold, you are wet, and you are the only one in their swim suit, but you will survive. all of these people would be just as scared to be walking with your bare-feet as you are, duh! or they wouldn’t be fully clothed at the pool. everyone will get wet at some point and you just happen to be the first one. you love rules and you followed them, go you girl! the only person here who can judge you or make you feel uncomfortable is you. so stand up straight, walk with confidence, this is your body you are blessed to have it. never be ashamed. my inner pep talk resounded as i joined the group wet and confident. pool day was great!

i love being in water: pools, lakes, rivers, oceans. this class helped me improve not only my kayaking skills, but to practice being more confident and comfortable with myself and enjoy what i love. when you find those things you love to do there is no greater feeling in the world. you will do whatever it takes to enjoy those moments, even wear goofy lookin spray skirts and a pfd. today, was the windiest day out on the lake. the water was bumpy and cold and the waves had white caps. there was a cold fall breeze in the air and kayaking class was optional. but it was the last day and i wouldn't have missed it no matter what. today was the best day! being one with kayak paddling through waves and surfing out the other side. lake spray hitting my face as i crashed down on the next wave. and feeling stronger than ever, after weeks of practice it was great just to have fun and kayak for no reason other than the mere fact that i could.

10. Kayaking. 

1 comment:

  1. I love this story and really loved the trip we took together. Glad you took this class.
    Love you.. Dad

    ReplyDelete