Story time:
August long weekend 2020, I went on a girls camping trip to celebrate a friends birthday… we filled up our floaties and tied them all together to a big floaty island in the middle. We were drinking, floating and living our best life… it was hot, and a bunch of us got off to swim and cool off which is when I got the brilliant idea to try and swim under the floaty island and pop up through the middle hole because I thought it would be funny to surprise my friends who were sitting in it.
I went under, and couldn’t find the hole in the middle since we had tied all of our floaties to it. Every time I tried to pop up and get out of the water, I hit my head on a tube that one of my friends was sitting in, not even knowing I was right underneath of them trying to get air. Panic set in, I took two full “breaths” of water (it was painful) and I came to a point where my body was so exhausted from swimming and not being able to breath that I just stopped moving. I remember feeling so angry, embarrassed and frustrated; thoughts like ‘ I can’t believe this is it… this is how I die… at my friends birthday party, stuck underneath all of them who don’t even know I’m right here’, and ‘I didn’t even text my mom that I love her today’ flooded my mind. Somehow, when my body went limp it found its way to the surface of the water and I was able to breathe again.
With adrenaline kicking in, I managed to swim back to the shore, ran back to our camp site and got in my car and cried harder than I’ve ever cried before. I found cellphone service, called my mom, sister and boyfriend and just sobbed.
To this day, that was the scariest moment I’ve ever experienced and it completely changed my life… after that I cut off contact with my entire friend group who didn’t seem to understand the severity of what I had just gone through. I quit my job, moved and I still have not been on a floaty device in a large body of water (small pools excluded), I haven’t swam in a lake without a life jacket on and the feeling of holding my breath is something I am still uncomfortable with.
This week (July 17 – 23, 2022) is National Drowning Prevention Week and speaking from experience, it can happen when you least expect it, it can be avoidable and there are so many precautions you can take to ensure your safety and that of those around you.
Click HERE for key tips, messages and topics.
- Jasmin Laine
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