While swimming, a thought crossed my mind: "Please save me."

It's been almost a year since I started swimming for health and fitness purposes.

I actually swam as a kid, back in elementary school. I even made it to butterfly stroke — you know, with the fins (those propulsion devices that make you feel like a little torpedo) and the whole progression: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, then butterfly.

Why did I stop? Probably puberty.

Or maybe the embarrassment of wearing a swimsuit in public. But honestly, the biggest reason was boredom. The more advanced the lessons got, the more it felt like mindless repetition — just swimming more laps, faster. It started to feel like a hamster wheel, so I dipped out.

Fast forward to my late twenties, when work and exhaustion had thoroughly wrecked my body. I decided swimming would be perfect — gentle, fluid, easy on the joints. A soft exercise for my hard life.

I joined the beginner class after work, huffing and puffing through each session. But thanks to my childhood training, muscle memory kicked in pretty quickly. I found myself picking things up faster than the typical adult beginners (you know, the ones who'd never touched a pool before), and my strokes actually looked... decent?

Here's how swimming classes typically work at most facilities: you start in beginner, move to intermediate, then advanced. This usually takes 3-6 months, and along the way, you'll swallow approximately 47 liters of pool water and experience muscle pain in places you didn't know existed lol.

Most people lose interest or momentum and just... stop showing up. They plateau at beginner level and vanish. The survivors make it to intermediate, but let's be real — what's the point of "mastering" adult recreational swimming? It's not like we're training for the Olympics.

Intermediate is basically the retirement home of swimming classes. People show up to stretch out their stiff bodies and decompress after a long day. Nobody in intermediate wants to move up or down. They've found their peaceful equilibrium.

Beginner class? Always packed with rotating newbies. Intermediate? The same familiar faces, just vibing in the water.

So who goes to advanced?

Only the absolute legends — the ones who've transcended intermediate, who swim at multiple pools around the city like some kind of aquatic tour circuit. These people don't talk during class. They just swim. More laps. Faster laps. It's almost intimidating.

And then... my instructor told me I should move up to advanced.

I spent two months dodging this. I pleaded. I negotiated. I threw every excuse I had. But in the end, I failed spectacularly.

So here I am, in the advanced class, and swimming now feels like CrossFit in water.
I run out of breath almost immediately. Honestly, I can't tell if I'm exercising or being waterboarded Lol.

I keep telling myself I'll quit. But then I think — my day ends with a shower anyway, right?
Might as well go to the pool, work out, and clean up there. And so the cycle continues...

Sigh. I kind of want to quit for the same reasons I did as a kid. The endless laps. The mindless repetition. Nothing new to learn. No excitement. Just... grind.

I don't know how this story ends. But I will say — I've definitely gotten more flexible, and my stamina has improved.
I just wanted a chill way to move my body, and somehow I ended up in combat training mode. How did this happen?

We'll see where this goes. If you're a swimmer feeling the same way, just know — you're not alone.

This one's for you.