Passed swimming water advancement

I was really excited when it has been announced that my swimming could be moved onto next level- stroke development (Level 4) after I passed water advancement (level 3) on 6th Nov. 2016.

My husband admires me very much: “Wow,your swimming is much better than mine, which is very standard your freestyle, breaststroke, and backstroke. I didn’t get the proper lesson, and you are having swimming lessons for 2 years.”

Yes, I am. Apart from that, I can do survival backstroke, treading water, straight jump and diving jump.

The scariest part was jumping, which nearly killing me. At the end of class, when my teacher said: “Now, we are gonna learn how to jump into the water.”

“Oh, that’s not for me, I don’t wanna do it.”

“Let’s get ready.”

“Hey, you guys go first, I am really scared”, I said to my classmates.

“Ok.” One young Indian guy jumped before me, he seemed with no problem at all, he enjoyed it. After that, one girl was standing at the edge of the pool, she was very unwilling to do it as she's afraid of the jump, but she got no choice.

“Hello, Sweetolive, it’s your turn, come on, you can do it.” 

“Oh, noooooo.” I hesitated. “1, 2, 3, come on, Sweetolive.”

I looked around, there’s nobody left except me.“Ok, I might have to do it.”

“1,2, 3, are you ready?” everyone’s looking at me.

I did hate it so much; I’d better go back home sleep.  But I couldn’t stand at the edge of the swimming pool doing nothing but wasting other people’s time, one more reason, I wanna move onto a higher level.

Suddenly, my mind went blank; I’ve got no choice except jump. 

“Wow, you made it.” I heard the teacher’s voice.

At that moment, I was very proud of myself. Once I conquered the fear, I felt extremely happy with self-confidence as I was no longer afraid of swimming in the deepest part of the pool.

If you actually do it, it’s not as hard as what you imagined.

I was very sick and stopped swimming the first time

10 years ago, I saw Aussies swimming at the beach, but I could only walk along the beaches as I have never swum in my life. I admired them very much, I told myself, I must learn how to swim, which was an essential surviving skill.

Then I enrolled swimming course for adults at a very beginning level, absolutely I’ve got no idea how to breathe while swimming. I stood at 3.5FT high swimming pool with lots of kids around, practicing breath control, blowing bubbles and floating.

While doing this, I drank so much dirty water, then I got very sick, I coughed more than one month, the symptom was exactly like swine flu which was widely spread in Australia, I doubted whether I’ve got the flu.

Enrolled swimming beginning class again

Since then, I stopped for many years. It was until May 2015, I decided I should restart swimming again.

After I enrolled, suddenly the average age of my group became the highest. All adult students were in their 20s or early 30s except me, I was the oldest, in my 40s.

But age doesn’t matter as I am doing a great job, my freestyle is better than my classmates, some of them can only breathe to one side, I can do both sides.

Because some younger ones are not that patient for the basic ones, they very hurry for moving onto the next level, while I am practicing at least 5 days a week, 1 hour/ day, and I am not urgent for a higher level at all, I just enjoy what I am doing.

By the way, during past 2 years, I was being sick several times due to drinking dirty water from swimming pool. I got seriously bad coughing for a few times, which lasted at least 1 month. But this time I didn’t give up.

I spent a lot of time on practicing basic swimming skills, which is exactly like learning English, once you build up a solid foundation, that would be much easier for you to move on.

Though it might take years without seeing the improvement at the beginning, please don't give up at that stage, that might be the hardest part, once you get over it, you'll find it so quick to move on.

It took me 1 year to learn freestyle, but within a few weeks, I know how to do breaststroke and backstroke.

Therefore, whatever you learn, the basis one is essential, please never look down on it. Please pay attention to basic skills because old habits die hard, which may take triple time for correction the errors.

Master basic English

The time when I was learning English, someone cared about me: “Why you are still studying? You are a married woman; you are a Mum, is that useful for you to learn English?”

I’ve got no idea, as when I started learning English, mastering basic English was really difficult, I couldn’t understand English movies, I've got no friend who is from English speaking countries, I couldn’t read English books which were full of unfamiliar vocabularies and phrases, I spent most of the time looking up the dictionary.

That stage was very boring; I was only dealing with textbooks, tape records, grammars, exams. I couldn’t see any future of my English, what’s for? That’s hopeless.

But I kept a dream, one day, it might be useful. I might talk with English native speakers, I might go traveling to English speaking countries; I might watch English movies; I might read English books. 

Today it comes true because I didn’t stop learning no matter how old I started.

I attended IT courses and self-taught English typing

A lot of Chinese women in my age don’t have the flexibility to choose an office job, they have to work in a state-run company all their life, let alone work in an English speaking country-Australia. Because a lot of them don’t know how to use computer and how to type fast; they can only use one finger typing.

In my 20s, the computer was not popular at all, no emails, no texting, no internet.

However, I attended IT courses and got certificates, my Dad bought me one computer model 386, you might have never heard of it, the very original one, big and heavy.

I also bought one old style typing machine, and self-taught how to type using 10 fingers, now I can type as fast as a professional one, very efficient.

I’ve got no idea that time: “Is that useful for learning how to type? “ 

Now obviously the answer is yes. Without outstanding typing speed, I doubt I could find an office job in Australia at my age.

Absolutely, I would have a problem with creating subscription no: Englishpassion, which involves writing and lots of typing.

Please don't stop learning new things

Though I dropped school at a very early age, but I have never stopped studying and learning new things.

I am quite unwilling to hear people say you are supposed to find a boyfriend in your early 20s, you should marry in your late 20s, you should take care of your kids in your 30s and 40s and you should look after your grandchildren in your 50s.

Come on, please don’t tell me that, I find it very boring, you can see through life in your 20s until retirement, there’s no excitement, there's no fun.

I only know what I enjoy most at the moment, and then I try to do it very hard, though I have failed many times, but I won’t regret as I have tried my best. It’s better to try and fails than fail to try.

One day, you will find that everything you are doing will be useful in the future, they are not wasted. But make sure do what you like most and please don’t let others tell you what to do, you know yourself better than anyone else.

One thing is for sure, you can learn anything at any age, it’s never too old to learn new things if you wanna live a fulfilled and wonderful life.

I can imagine without keep learning English and computer thing, I will retire soon in China by spending all my life work in a state-run company, that’s not the life I wanted.

Keep learning, don’t stop if you wanna your life interesting which makes a difference with the people who surround you.

please join my wechat subscription no: Englishpassion if you wanna get inspired