Whenever you’re on the water — or even near it — drowning’s always a danger. Deaths by drowning happen every day, and the toll includes expert swimmers as well as folks who can’t swim a stroke. But there’s some good news, too. Drowning is almost always preventable. I learned this lesson the hard way. Twice. You might think I’m a slow learner, and you’d be right. Luckily, though, you don’t have to repeat my mistakes. You can profit from them, instead.

My first brush with death by drowning came on a hot June morning when I was in the fifth‑grade, on a class trip to a nearby lake. I had just swum out to the diving float, anchored over the lake’s steeply shelving, weedy bottom. No sooner had I hauled myself out of the water and onto the float, however, than I found myself in the middle of a melee. A couple of other girls were scuffling, and before I knew it, I’d been knocked back into the water — but this time I was on the deep‑water side of the float. I landed hard, into the bargain, knocking all the breath out of my body, and I seemed to have lost all ability to swim. I couldn’t scream for help, and I couldn’t wave my hands in the air to attract attention.…Read more…

 
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