🏊 Swimming lessons as an adult, more humbling than expected

Decided to actually learn to swim properly this year at thirty two years old, something I genuinely should have learned as a kid but somehow never actually got around to doing myself for reasons that honestly do not fully make sense to me looking back on it now as an adult with actual resources available to just go and learn it properly. The actual specific experience has been considerably more humbling than I honestly expected going in, sharing a beginner class with several genuinely confident kids half my own age who picked up basic techniques within just a couple of sessions, while I have personally needed considerably longer just to feel comfortable putting my own face underwater without immediately panicking about it. My instructor has been genuinely patient throughout, though she did mention that adult learners typically face a fairly specific unique challenge kids generally do not really deal with themselves, adults carry considerably more accumulated fear and self consciousness around actually failing or looking foolish in front of others, which apparently slows down the whole overall learning process considerably compared to kids who simply do not carry that same specific baggage yet. Six weeks in now, I can finally manage a fairly basic, admittedly clumsy front stroke across the shallow end without genuinely panicking partway through, which honestly feels like real, meaningful progress given how far away that specific basic milestone felt during my genuinely difficult and discouraging first couple of actual sessions attempting it. What has surprised me most is how much this whole entire experience has actually taught me about being a genuine beginner again as an adult, something most of us honestly do not get to properly practice much once we settle comfortably into our specific established adult routines and generally avoid actively trying anything genuinely new for a while. Has anyone else learned to swim, or picked up any other genuinely new physical skill, as an adult themselves, and did you find the actual specific mental part, dealing with fear and self consciousness, considerably harder than the actual physical learning itself turned out to be?

There is a particular kind of embarrassment in swallowing pool water in front of a whole class of confident ten year olds during your own adult lesson, happened to me twice in one single session last month and the kids were far kinder about it than I honestly expected them to be that whole afternoon, oddly enough given their age and mine.

Signed up at thirty five convinced I already knew how to swim from childhood summers at a cousin's pool, turned out floating and actually swimming properly are two completely different skills nobody bothers explaining beforehand. The instructor politely suggested I start from the very basics again, which stung a little at first but was clearly the right call in the end.