🏊 Learning to swim at 32 with a class full of kids

I'm 32 and I joined a beginner swimming class 6 weeks ago. Never learned as a kid. My parents were scared of water and the only pool near our house shut when I was 10. So I spent years telling people "I can swim" when I meant I could stand in a pool. Now I'm in a batch at a pool near my office with 8 kids around 9 to 12. The kids float like corks. They kick, they laugh and they splash me on purpose. I held the wall for the whole first week and kept my face dry out of pure fear. The coach is a patient lady who keeps saying "just blow bubbles, sir, it's only water." Last Tuesday I swallowed half the pool and a 10 year old lent me his goggles. Week 4 I let go of the wall. Three strokes, then I panicked and grabbed a kickboard. Week 6 I did one full length of the shallow end. Slow, ugly, arms flying everywhere. A kid called Rohan clapped from the next lane, which was nice and also a bit humiliating. My legs sink the moment I stop thinking about them. Nobody warned me about that part. I still can't breathe to the side. I count 1, 2, 3 and then gulp air like a fish. The coach says another 2 months and I should manage 25 metres without stopping or standing up. I bought a proper cap and goggles this week and now I feel like I belong there. My cousin laughed when I told him, then asked if the batch has space for him.

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 expected them to be that whole afternoon, oddly enough given their age and mine.

I did the same thing at 35, said I could swim because I floated in my cousin's pool as a kid. The coach asked me to swim one length and I stopped halfway, holding the rope like a lifeline. Floating and swimming turned out to be 2 different skills, and nobody tells you that beforehand. Breathing to the side took me 5 weeks, so you're not slow. Keep going, the kickboard phase ends.