MOTIONS

There is something so serene about diving head first into the deep-end, having the water swallow you whole while everything quiets down. The feeling of solitude, peace and ironically you feel like you can breathe easily. There is nothing but you and the water, and the feeling of accomplishment; of knowing that you can face the depth. You can touch the bottom and effortlessly find your way back to the top. Life is a lot like that, the only difference is, some people can swim and others can’t.

If you can’t swim, being at the bottom is scary; all you see and feel around you is water, depth and suffocation. You try so hard to hold on to that last breath of air, and as it slips away, panic grips you and threatens not to let go. Every part of your body is fighting so hard to get you back to the surface but it seems the more effort you put in, the deeper you sink. Relaxation is the key to remaining afloat; any swimmer will tell you that. That’s life in a nutshell; the moral of the story is you need to learn how to swim!

I learnt how to swim, both metaphorically and literally. Although once you have explored the depth of the pool; you can reach every corner of it, then it becomes small. It becomes so small that there is nowhere left to discover, nothing new to experience and that’s when you realize the limits imposed on you. You can only go back and forth for so long before you’re completely worn out. Life takes more or less the same course. You discover your limitations; learn your depth and then you start to go through the motions. You know there is an ocean out there with endless water and great challenges but you don’t know how to get there or you are just too afraid.

At a young age of just twenty-three, I felt like I had reached that point. The end of the road where I had done and experienced everything there was to experience. I had loved and lost, I had rebelled and fallen in line, and I had succeeded and failed. I had been at the bottom and risen back to the top. At least that’s what I thought. Oh! I was so wrong! I thought i was in a funk going through the motions but it turned out to be the beginning of a whole new experience; i found the ocean.