Being born in a small town near the Danube meant that I knew how to swim and learned that when I was little, just like the vast majority of those who live here, but still... I can't say that about myself. I did learned to swim at one point, when I was at the sea, and was about 12 years old, but I could practically not say that I knew how to swim in the true sense of the word, and I didn't had anyone to teach.
I was just able to float and advance for a few meters before needing to touch the bottom of the sea.
However, when I returned from the sea I decided to join the boys my age who were swimming near my house, and that was my experience in which I was on the verge of death. I remember even now, that I entered the water, next to me there were a lot of children screaming and laughing, I started swimming a few meters towards a deck placed near the shore and...
...at one point one of them turned to me and started splashing water on me, at which point I stopped moving my hands and feet and began to sink, realizing that I don't know how to swim as I thought I would, and in fact I was only able to swim for a few meters in a straight line, and no more.
Seeing that I was about to drown, he began to push me to shore, practically saving me from drowning, with less to almost no help from me. Somehow we could say that he was the one who would have caused my drowning, but he also saved me. I don't remember much about how I got to shore, but I know that I could hear those around me... occasionally, that I swallowed some water, and that I was very scared when out of the water.
The road to the shore was somehow a series of dives and lifts to the surface and it seemed that it took a long time and, even after five minutes I wasn't fully aware of myself and the surroundings and had a strong headache. It seemed to me as if I had been born again, and I could almost hear nothing, and no one around me. I hadn't swallowed a lot of water, although I was coughing for a few minutes, but I had a terrible scare.
For a long time I hated that boy, because in my mind I thought it was because of him that I was going to drown, but in reality he saved me. Probably if I had gone offshore and got tired at some point, not knowing how to float or kick the water and stand still without sinking, maybe I would have drowned... for good...
It's an ugly experience, which I don't like to remember, but it's part of a series of good and bad episodes in my life. But what about you, have you ever been on the verge of death? If so, how did you escape, and how did that experience impact you?
Thanks for attention,
Adrian