Swimming is Life
No, really: it’s a perfect metaphor
Public swimming pools are filthy places, but the similarities they’ve got with life don’t stop there. In the middle of all the snot and hair and plasters one can still learn valuable lessons — if one looks really into it.
Take for example the times when you’re swimming and there’s someone right behind you. Not for one or two lengths only, but for the entire hour. You two are going at the exact same pace. Sometimes they stay back at a respectful distance, sometimes they almost caress your soles at every second stroke. It gets to a point that you can’t relax for one second, lest they’ll be all over you.
And you won’t relax because you absolutely cannot let them through.
It’s worse when it’s a member of the opposite sex. “He’s not gonna pull the ‘men are stronger’ and get past me,” she says. “Women can’t swim too fast; I’m not gonna let her win,” he replies. In this situation, this behaviour is not even sexism, but only an excuse to instigate competition. In fact it doesn’t matter if they are fatter, shorter, gayer or your monozygotic sibling: if their pace is similar to yours you're in a race.
(For stylistic reasons the masculine pronoun will be used hereinafter. That and because men are the most lame competitors.)
So he might be taller than you are, slimmer than you’ll ever be, balder than your grandpa, wearing ridiculous yellow shorts and goggles that keep falling from one eye — he won’t get through. As long as he’s not obviously a better (as in more experienced) swimmer than you, he’s your competitor and now you have to beat him.
For that, you push yourself harder than ever. You had a set of 500m planned, but after 400 he’s still keeping up and for the first time you start considering going longer than that. Your flips get more effective at every turn — you gain ¼ of second per length! You even forget to breathe for a while and then have to compensate on a side you’re not used to, drinking some of that unfiltered water in the process. Not even this matters if you’re still on the lead.
But then he stops.
You look behind on the next turn and he’s not there anymore. He’s given up — you won. Who cares that you screwed up the training you had planned? You just beat your lane partner. He’s weak and you’re strong. He’s a quitter, you’re not. A feeling of accomplishment takes over your mind and body. The next 50m (because you can’t stop right after him; that’d be awkward) are the most peaceful and relaxed of the whole set.
And then you think: “What’s the point of swimming this way?” Not the way you’d been doing for the past hour, but these last 50 metres. What is there to gain when every stroke is so easy that, it bores you? Sure, you deserve this bit of rest after beating the competition, but who was in fact the contester ?Because you two have never outspokenly agreed to a race.
That’s life right there.
The extra effort to stay in front of someone who doesn’t care is what makes you grow —in a sport, professionally, as an individual or otherwise. You can practice your stroke for days, but it’s not until an impromptu race comes up that you’re going to actually care about the technique. Human beings need to compare themselves with one another to realise they can do better. Only then skills are developed.
It is all to beat someone unaware of the situation, but they develop nonetheless.
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