Enjoying the Journey

I can still hear her voice, and feel her smile as she tells the story of my first swim test as a 5 year old at the Huey P. Long pool that sat below the Indian Mounds on the LSU campus.  She watches a big group splash and lots of little hands and feet paddling across the pool.  But where is Billy?  She runs over to one of the instructors, “Where’s Billy?”, and the instructor answers, “There he is”, and points to a little shadowy image swimming underwater, “Billy prefers to swim underwater, and is the only child that can swim the whole width of the pool underwater.”  My mother smiles, “he always has to do everything a little different and make it just a little harder than it really needs to be.” But mom, I have so enjoyed the journey.