My fear for water

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‎Most people say swimming is therapeutic. That moment when you're inside the water, eyes shut, brain at rest. If feels like the water is purifying your soul.
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‎A friend of mine used to say, "When I swim, I feel like a newborn."
‎In his claims, swimming supposedly takes the weight of his troubles off his shoulders.
‎Well, maybe it does. Or maybe, he was just trying to coarse me into swimming with them.
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‎All my friends loved water. I used to call them fishes, not because they had fins or gills, but the way they swim, always leaves me fascinated.
‎But me on the other hand, the only water I could comfortably stay under even if it took hours, was my shower. While swimming purified my friends, my shower did a better job.
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‎I was so scared of water, that if it rained heavily and the area gets flooded, I would never step out of the house. I used to stay in Aba, Abia State, and anyone who's familiar with the place would know that once it rains for over an hour, it'd require a lot of guts to step outside. The area can get so flooded, that someone could literally swim through, if not for the murky odor it emits.
‎Whenever it got to that, I'd rather remain at a spot till I figure out my means of getting out without the water touching me.
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‎You might wonder why I was so scared of water. Well, even I, do not have a definite reason for that. All I know is that I've had that fear since childhood. I used to believe that something might drag me under, once I'm in the water. It was probably because of the many horror movies I'd seen.
‎But then, my fear of water didn't stop me from watching people swim. I used to follow my friends to the pool, but I never got in. One time, they pulled a dumb prank, and pulled me in. Well, I can't give the full details of what happened in that moment. All I know is when next I opened my eyes, it was at a nearby hospital. I must've fainted out of fear.
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‎Last two years, I visited my hometown, and an incident occured, and changed my mindset about swimming.
‎My hometown is a large community surrounded by larger deep waters. In my village, everyone swims perfectly, even children.
‎That day, I had decided to wash by the riverside so I could enjoy the view. As I washed, a little girl ran past, and some moments later, she cried to my side, and begged me to save her toy that was floating downstream.
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‎I followed her to the river, and I was paralyzed with fear. I begged her to let the toy go, and promised to get her another one, but she insisted that her brother got it for her. All my life, I'd never been that confused before.
‎I stood there thinking of what to do, and the child cried her eyes out tugging at my clothes to save her toy.
‎Luckily for me, my little brother came over to check on me, and he helped me out of the ordeal.
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‎That incident broke something in me, and for the first time in my whole life, I deliberately dipped my leg into the water, and begged my siblings to teach me to swim.
‎Standing there, watching the girl cry, it made me realize that if it was a person that was drowning, I would've stood and watched in horror because I couldn't save her.
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‎And thus, my lessons began. Everyday, my siblings would take turns and teach me for an hour, until I learnt how to move my hands and feet underneath.
‎We often used the smaller rivers for the lesson, so I still don't think I'd be able to swim a large mass of water.
‎And I have no doubt that if something were to happen, swimming to safety wouldn't even be an option. My lessons only allayed the fear of water, but it didn't make me a swimmer, because I'm yet to learn how to swim long distance.
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‎Maybe sometime in the future, I'll learn.
‎Maybe, I won't.
‎But either ways, I sincerely hope and pray that nothing happens, that'd require swimming as the only means to safety. Even the thought of it is horrifying.