Drowning is the second leading cause of injury deaths of infantsand children younger than 15 years old in the United States.
I know many ofyou may have small children and relatives so this may be of some interest toyou. A personal experience happened to me when I was around seven yearsold. I still can remember it like yesterday. This incident almost cost me my life,I was disobedient and it still has a big effect on me now. This little act of minecaused a lot of stress to many people, I was seven years old and at the time Iwas the only child.
I stayed with my mother and my step-dad. We lived in thetrailer parks; I was at the babysitters house and she had two teenage sons. One was named Tim and the other Derrick, and I wanted to be like them. Itwas a hot summer day, and Tim and Derrick went swimming at the pool up atthe front of the trailer park.
I asked the babysitter could I go she said, NO!This made me very upset because I couldnt go to the pool with her sons. Shetold me the reason why I couldnt go was because she was in charge of meand she wasnt going to be up there watching me. I wasnt really caring aboutwhat she was talking about. She went into the kitchen and was making mesome lunch while I was on the sofa. After lunch was ready I ate all my foodand told her that I was going outside to play with the dog. I went out to playwith Face; she was a full breed pit bull, but she liked me.
After about an hourof being bored outside playing by myself, I began to think of a way I couldsneak to the pool. I went inside the house without being seen and put on myswimming trunks. Running as fast as I could I left out the house and sprintedto the pool. I was so happy I was finally at the pool, so I walked around thepool once and took off my shoes and shirt.
Not knowing I was at the deepend of the pool I ran and jumped into the pool. Straight to the bottom I went. All of a sudden in one blink my fun turned into a scare. It was the water andme and I didnt know how to swim. So I was gasping for air all I could seewas the suns rays hitting the water and the big white fluffy clouds.
Next thing Iknew was I was drowning and I went to the bottom of the pool, 8 feet down. All I remember next was I was on the ground and everybody was standingaround me, and people were kneeling also. Among the crowd was Tim andDerrick looking and wondering was I all right. I felt really scared and nervous.
I was ok and they took me back to the house and told her what hadhappened to me. She was furious because I snuck out and couldve killedmyself by being disobedient. My little act affected everyone, my mother, thebabysitter and her sons. I really learned my lesson the hard way. I still thinkabout this today how my life couldve been ended over my curiosity ofsneaking out and going to the pool.
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