In my almost a decade of active swimming, I had never attempted to go more than knee-deep into the ocean. If you were raised in my part of Nigeria, you would realise that my reason for not attempting to go waist-deep in the ocean wasn’t farfetched. We had grown up hearing loads of “Fear-Reinforcing Tales” about the ocean. Those tales had overtime created in me a phobia for the deep blue sea and even when I became a very good swimmer, the ocean was out of bounds.
On this day, the lingering jinx was going to be broken by a kid. On that morning at Tarkwa Bay, I was standing ankle deep in the ocean watching the horizon, I noticed a Caucasian man swimming some few metres in the ocean beckoning on a Caucasian boy of about 7 years who was standing by me at the shore to come join him in the ocean. The boy with a frightened look on his face, approached the ocean cautiously and began swimming unsteadily towards the man.
As he approached the man, the man moved a bit farther into the ocean but still within the reach of the boy. At every point, the man kept on reinforcing the boy’s staggered progress with words like “you can do it son”, “you are learning fast”, “don’t be scared of the waves” and “you must face your fears son” etc. It suddenly dawned on me that this Father was not just teaching his Son ‘how to swim in the ocean’ he was also teaching him a fundamental life lesson which is ‘COURAGE’ – the ability to face uncertainty, despite fear.
I was startled and inspired all at once, in other words, ‘E Choke Me!’ I couldn’t understand why a boy of his age could attempt to swim in the big league, while a ‘Bros’ like myself who could ‘maybe’ swim better had been playing it safe. I decided to ‘Face My Fear’ and I discovered first-hand that day that sometimes in life… IT ISN’T THE INADEQUACY OF CAPACITY, BUT THE ABSENCE OF COURAGE, THAT LIMITS US FROM ACHIEVING OUR FULLEST POTENTIAL.