My first memory comes from when I was really young. I'm not sure of the exact age, but I'd just learned to walk. We had a swimming pool in the backyard. My sister bobbed complacently in a flotation device, but my mother was destracted before she put me in one. I saw my twin sister in the pool, and I wanted to be there too, so I jumped in. The memory is really just a remote emotional impression, but I remember falling into the pool and floating there, helpless. Time seemed to stop, which is why, I think, I didn't try to breathe. My mother must have heard the splash my fat little body made when it hit the water, since she grabbed me from the pool about ten seconds after I went in. I spit up a little water, but never cried about the incident.
Since then, my love of swimming has increased, and though I've nearly drowned several times, I'm always drawn back to the water. | 
