Philippe Croizon: A Spill-Personal Narrative

Refuse to be a coward, you can do it. This is what I kept telling myself. Everyone else can do it, you can do it too. At least that was my vision, until it came time to accomplishing it. It seemed as though I was forever trying to learn to swim and dunk under the water. My legs would shake, my stomach would be in knots, everyone looking with anticipation, waiting for the plunge, but I couldn't compose myself to produce. Some little voice in my head kept convincing me to turn around and run. I sat on the sidelines, watching everybody else having the fun, playing the games, and doing the diving. Even kids that were younger than myself were swimming. I felt like such a failure, until one day I decided that nothing was going to stand

I can do this right? My friends wouldn't try to drown a person on purpose would they? I anticipated joining the fun, so I made up my mind that I would proceed with baby steps in order to reach my goal. I did a little research and found out that on September of 2010, a man of 42, by the name of Philippe Croizon, a Frenchman, swam across the English Channel. He swam 21 miles in under 14 hours, and as if that wasn't impressive enough, Philippe is a quadruple amputee due to an electrical accident that happened in 1994. Can you imagine? No arms, and no legs, and the man swam that far. For this reason, I kept digging for other inspirational

What if I'm laughed at by everyone? To my surprise, I started hearing chants and claps from kids were yelling that I could do it. My fear turned from scared to a smile. All of a sudden, kids were exiting the pool and coming to stand by my side. When it was completely empty, nobody said a word. Gazing around at one another, holding hands. I knew this was it, and I was extremely ecstatic. As my best friend and I glanced at each other, I gave him a slight nod, and in turn, he gave a slight push. The cheers and laughter went on for the rest of the day. I cried tears of happiness, but of course, I turned around to do so. You know, I couldn't appear as a baby in my moment of feeling like a star. If you never face your fears, you can never say you tried. Start with baby steps, and you will turn your unable into able, and impossible into