I love water always have and always will, but when I was a child my love was nearly my down fall. 
I was born in Rangeley, Maine and raised there for the most part, when I was there every chance I got I’d got to a summer camp. The summer camp I went to was small, not a lot of kids and less councilors than there probably should have been, but it was amazing and freeing. Since we were in Maine every few days we would go to a lake, there were plenty around so we’d often alternate between them. The lakes were beautiful and different, but they shared one main thing in common, they were deep, deep enough for crayfish (tiny lobsters) to live in. Although I would occasionally pet them I was rather scared of them. 
Beneath the screeches of children and gulls were two children playing tic-tac-toe in the mud and sand waiting for the life jackets. “Are you sure you really need a life jacket Morgen? It’s taking so long and I wanna play mermaids,” pouted a small blonde child who was currently losing at tic-tac toe. 

“I dunno Maddie I haven’t really tried to swim all that much, so maybe not?” I said, putting the last X I needed down. 
“Well, it’s taking so long! Why don’t I teach you how to swim a bit before we play? That way you won’t even need a lifejacket.” She replied, getting up slowly and looking around. 
“Okay, sure, lifejackets are uncomfortable anyways,” I agreed. 

Maddie taught me to doggie paddle a bit, before getting bored and telling me to got to the big rock pile on the east side of the lake while she went to go gather grass for crowns. I figured this was a good idea, if I got there first then I could find more clams shells than her. I started off swimming fine, but when the wind picked up the waves were waltzing cats, going and coming, softly, slowly, and very quietly. I don’t remember much except for feeling as if something was off and being terrified because of it. I wouldn’t know that my intuition was correct until the next day, because all of a sudden I woke up on the shore. 

I was on the grass with a towel under me and Maddie and a councilor off to the side, Maddie was worried I wasn’t going to be able to play with her, which I wouldn’t, and the councilor was mad that I hadn’t taken a lifejacket. I wouldn’t even know until the next day that I had almost drowned.  

I love water, always have and always will, but sometimes it helps to think things through, and of course, know how to actually swim.