On the Seventh Day of Christmas my true love Max encouraged me to remember one of my proudest moments…when I could swim like a swan!

Here in 2013 , the seventh day of Christmas falls on New Year’s Day! Happy New Year everyone! Besides eating black-eyed peas and collard greens today, to ensure a lucky and prosperous New Year and that I will quickly recover from this lingering pneumonia, I am using this malaise and inability to talk (!) to enjoy rambling through some memories. I wonder if any of you find it hard to believe sometimes that you have memories—whole periods of your life perhaps –that not a whole lot of people know about! Not that we tried to keep it secret, more that it was an age and place thing, developmental independence and all that…but I digress! LOL

For me, college was one of those times in my life, where I was out-of-state from my parents, and didn’t meet my husband to be until my senior year! So, there are many activities I engaged in, memories I’ve stored, that I’m the only one privy to…LOL, I find that kind of fun! However, I’m getting ready to share one of those memories with you…because…ta da…I was a swimming swan! Actually, I was part of a synchronized swimming team for my college, and we were good! LOL We were the “Aquabelles” of Greensboro College, a small Methodist college in North Carolina. I have vivid pictures in my head of our practicing the ferris wheel movement over and over, spinning around and around, feet hooked to the person below us, and hands holding the ankles of the person above! Sometimes I thought my lungs would burst before my turn came to rise above the water, only to churn back under immediately! It was demanding, the team was greater than any one of us, we were performing for a crowd, and it was quite a rush!  Swimming was a big part of the first 25 years of my life…then I married, had a child, another, worked as a teacher then family therapist, and was busy! Some years however, I swam competitively, synchronized, lifeguarded, and taught swimming classes! Surprised I didn’t grow fins! LOL I didn’t think I had any pictures of this teamwork, but was shocked to find it on ancestry.com in a GC yearbook!  I am in the front row, second from the left, withlong dark hair. Really, that’s me, LOL  

I am also including a video of the Olympic Team performing their routine purely for the pleasure of watching it! I did those moves! It’s very hard for this sick lady of 64 to believe!  Happy New Year my friends and family, enjoy your memories as well!