I am grateful for water, but I have a love hate relationship with it. I understand we need it to survive. I drink water regularly and shower daily, but when it comes to actually getting into a large body of water I am not a fan of the stuff. I think one of the reasons I dislike water is because it is so difficult to stand on and breathe properly once you go underneath it's surface. Watching the Discovery channel has also educated me to the fact that there are millions of life forms that live in lakes, seas, and oceans that I want nothing to do with.I am not the greatest swimmer and what compounds the problem is that I'm also sensitive to cold water. I remember going to a scout camp when I was a teenager. On the first day they had a mandatory swim check before you could do anything else. I watched all my friends in front of my jump in the water and start swimming. When it was my turn I jumped in and may as well have been hit by a car. I didn't realize that it was a glacier fed lake and as soon as I hit the water all my muscles contracted and I couldn't breathe. I thrashed around making embarrassing noises like I had the wind knocked out of me. After about 2 minutes of making a fool of myself much to the amusement of every scout in the camp I was able to acclimatize to the cold water and finish the swim check.
I have been on a couple cruises and I enjoyed the food (gluttony) aspect of it but as you know I am a movie enthusiast and have seen too many scenarios from White Squall, Poseidon Adventure, Jaws, The Perfect Storm, The Day After Tomorrow, and Titanic. Luckily having a large movie repertoire to draw on also helped me when I got scared of the water. I would just recall scenes form Speed 2 which would snap me out of my fear as I broke into laughter. I did just fine as long as I was confined to the dining area but going out on the deck made me realize how much water was surrounding me.Some people have accused me of being a little paranoid and neurotic when it comes to water, but there are lots of other people who wear life jackets to work too just in case a dam upstream happens to break.
