Swimming made me confident

Once upon a time, I was a teenager living in the country.

During the summer, I played in the water, rowed a boat, dove from a bridge and caught fish with a net. All of those things made me happy and water was my second life.

In the village, a old boy name ‘Da Ze’ was my best friend. One day Da Ze went swimming with me. Usually, he was a good swimmer but this day he suddenly started drowning!!! I was much smaller than him but I knew I needed to help my friend. All I could do was push him toward the riverbank and hope we got there before he drowned. Fortunately, we made it to shallower water and he was safe.

After many years we met together here in the United States and he retold me this story from our childhood. He told me, “You saved my life…without your help that day…I wouldn’t be here.”