Good day everyone, it is a good weekend for all of us. There was a time when the former company I was working for organized 2 days to visit a beach. I didn't have any swimming experience. My first time experience made me have a swimming phobia and that was the reason I didn't follow my siblings to swim in the nearby river when I was kid.
I love when it's raining, and I love to bathe during rainfall, but I don't like to swim in a river or swimming pool.
I had a phobia when I was in elementary school: There was a friend of mine called segun. While we were coming from school that particular afternoon, There was a pool of water that was in the road. It wasn't big at all, It was about 22m long and 18m wide.
“Let's swim together, I have been swimming in this water for a long time. It is very sweet to swim here”. - Segun
That was how he removed his school uniform and jumped inside the water. As he was swimming, I began to feel like swimming. “Chris, come inside now, it is awesome,” Are you sure I can do it?
"Yes, I'm sure because you are more bold than me. I started last week, look at me now.”
When I heard him speaking to me, Something inside me said, “Chris you can do it." That was how I removed my uniform and jumped inside.
That was the end, I didn't know what happened again; by the Time I woke up, I saw myself in hospital.
I was told later that the moment I jumped into the water, I did not lift up my head, and Segun shouted for help after 10 minutes. That was how I was rescued by people that were coming, took to hospital and treated. That was how I developed phobia.
Celebrating End Of The Year Party In The Beach
There was a company I worked for for a year and half. The name of the Company is Opay (Paycom), we deal with financial services- we operate like banks, but we don't have many structures like banks. We do financial services online!
You cannot find Opay bank anywhere but we have more customers than some of the banks in Nigeria.
At the end of 2020, I was nominated as one of the best managers across my state. I was among the 30 employees nominated to spend 2 days on a Beach. The Company provided everything for us, the bus, foods, wines, T-shirts and snacks.
The First Day In the Beach
The first day we got to the beach football match was organized for everyone , both males and females, old and young. It was wonderful beach soccer that lasted for an hour. I have never seen anyone among us playing football except that day.
It is sweetest to play with the opposite sex, they were just using their hands to carry the ball like basketball.
After the match, we all went to our various rooms because there was room for two people. but male cannot be paired with a female unless they are couples.
We had tea and bread for breakfast and drank wines of different varieties.
When it was 12:00 noon, there were different meals in the hotel, you just had to tell them the kind of food you wanted. It is not only our local foods, there were foreign foods in the hotel. I ate rice and chicken while some of my friends ate pounded yam and snails.
In the afternoon, we played a truth and dare game: When you pick a paper, you have to answer what was written inside with sincerity and truthfulness.
One of the funniest questions that was asked by one of us was “how many body counts have you heard throughout your lifetime and mention their names?"
While he was about to answer the question, he was looking at her girlfriend's eyes. He couldn't say it because he doesn't want her girlfriend to know how many body counts he had.
I knew that the guy had played a game with a friend of his girlfriend; it was difficult to answer. that was how we ended ‘truth and dare game’
In the evening, we all went to the beach but I refused to get close to the ocean. The wave itself was terrible! Before we entered the beach, we heard the story of many people that the waves were taken and never seen again. it was an Ocean one cannot see the end from the palace we were.
Also the incident I had while I was in elementary class created more fear in my heart. I couldn't go near the Ocean in the first day.
A Party Night, A Night of Liquor
It was a night to be much remembered! I saw beautiful ladies that night. They looked like they were not from this planet because their skin was glowing. I called it a night of liquor due to the scarcity of non-alcoholic drinks. Since I was not used to night parties, I left the party after 30 minutes.
My colleague in the office whom we paired together to stay in the hotel politely came to beg me for one night in the room, he said “please Chris, I want to spend this night with a lady in this room till tomorrow morning.”
Since our hotel was a room and a parlor, I went to sleep in the parlor.
When it was 2:00, he came with a beautiful lady and both of them were drunk.
The lady left at 6:00 am but I heard him say, “I will add more money to your money" in the morning.
The Last Day In The Deep Blue Ocean
Many of us had hangovers which made us drink tea or coffee in the morning. After lunch, we all walked round the beach to see how beautiful it was. All of us had coconut in our hand, sipping the coconut water with straw. As we were walking, we were discussing some of us talking about last night's party and many things that happened there.
After the walk, we all come back to our various rooms to rest.
When it was 3:00 pm, we all put on our swimming trunks. The lifesavers told us that, “the waves of this ocean are very strong. You have to run back if the waves are coming because the ocean is very deep. The waves have taken many people away.”
The phobia I had could not be allowed near the water. "Chris, why are you afraid of water? Even my lady is not afraid of it.”
Thank you Angelina, I'm ok here. “Lazy boy, how long will you continue like this? You need to be ready to break that phobia in you."
I did not tell you that I'm not enjoying myself here. I don't want to swim and that is all. “I noticed since we came here, you haven't come near the ocean. The old men among us are here swimming, having a good time; You stay afar off looking at us as if you are not among us.”
One of the Young men among us who was very good at swimming was having fun in the ocean. He was going beyond the parameters the lifesavers gave us-there was a limit of where we could reach while swimming. He was going beyond the limit. By the time he swam beyond the point, the waves were very strong, and the waves dragged him into the Deep Blue Ocean. We could not see him, and fair was upon us. The lifesavers entered the ocean, but they could not find him.
Until the next day his dead body was found at a river bank in a village close to the beach. The trunk and the shirt he wore made us recognize his dead body.
What lesson do I learn
I cannot go to Ocean to practice swimming, and I will always pay attention to people when they are sharing experiences. We were warned before we entered into the river but his overconfidence made him go beyond the limit.
I will always obey instructions even i know it than the person that is instructing me.
More Phobia
Instead of my phobia to cure, I'm having more phobia to swim. up till this moment, I can't swim in the river or swimming pool. swimming is one of my biggest phobias.