Hello everyone,
Talking of myself my name is Namaraj Thapaliya (NJ). I belong to rural area in district chitwan of Nepal. When I was very young I visited my uncle’s house and there was a river next to their house. Everyone used to go there and wash their clothes and swim. Up to that time, I didn’t know how to swim and to dive, and I stayed on the river bank because everyone was suggesting and warning me not to go inside the water, so I was afraid and did not dare to put my foot in water. I stayed there for some time until I suddenly saw my friend inside the water. He swam and I wanted to go inside. I finally did… and drowned. I was suffocating. I drank some water of that river. It was a hard moment of survival. My brother saw me, and took me out of the water. And I started to heavily breath again. I finally survived.
The story is not over yet.
What that drowning experience taught me is that how did it come that all of them go out there so easily and why would I drown? I might have killed myself. I was determined to learn how to swim. No matter what it costs, I will learn how to swim. And for 5 years I went to the riverbank only to sit there and observe the water. Each day after my school day, I went there. I saw different kind of people. Some of them enjoyed their swim, others were catching fish for their survival. After 5 years of regular visit, one day, the flood came. I was there with a friend of mine who knows how to swim. I told him that I want to swim too. And he smiled and said “to learn swimming you have to go into the water rather than staying in the bank”. And I told him the story of my drowning. “He said fine, I’ll be behind you. You just need the courage to go inside the water”, and he taught me some swimming technique. I finally went inside the water for a second time. And this time I didn’t drown, I swam and got out of water myself. That moment is one of the happiest moments in my life.
From that day I learned swimming, but the main part is: I have wasted 5 years of my life in fear, thinking that I would die. If I would have shown courage 5 years before, it would have changed me. I could have enjoyed the water with my friend. My determination and will power made me finally become a good swimmer, but my fear stopped me for such a long time. From that day on, I learned that time is the most precious thing in our life but sometimes fear makes it our enemy. I cannot go back to the time that I have wasted, but that time taught me a good life lesson. Everyone thinks that time is with us, but after that I learned that time can also be the most powerful enemy in our life, which cannot be defeated.
“Never allow the fear to win. Greatness is inside us, we just must have the will power to show it”.
