29 Lessons I Learned the Hard Way

Lesson 6

This is a lesson I’m not quite sure how to begin. Let me say this: IT WASN’T MY FAULT!!

No, really, it wasn’t.

You see the pool where I swam was a lovely pool. Eight 'wave-less' lanes, high wood ceilings and nice bright windows which the sun could shine through. It was really a pleasant pool to swim in. However, the locker rooms left, much to be desired. Here are my four problems with the lockers rooms.

1.       They were extremely small

2.       There was one bathroom and the door didn’t lock

3.       The water in shower came out yellow because of rusty pipes

4.       They were constantly switching the boys and girls locker rooms.

Let me explain that last one a little bit better.

As you exited the door at the back of the pool deck you would walk into a small room with three doors and a staircase. A door to your left, a door to your right, a door on the left of the wall straight in front of you and a staircase beside that.

The door straight in front of you led out to a hallway which took you outside, and the staircase went up to the men’s locker room.

The doors on the left and right were two small unmarked locker rooms with a shower, bathroom and a few lockers inside.

There was no women’s locker room.

As such, to solve this dilemma, a paper sign had been printed out and stuck to the front of both these doors saying “Women’s” on them. These two locker rooms became the women’s.

I’ll continue now.

It had been a long practice, one of those three hour ones on a Saturday morning where when you finish you just want to crawl back into bed pull the covers over your head and say “Don’t wake me up till the new year!”

Needless to say, I wasn’t feeling the best. I hauled my forty pound swim bag onto my shoulders and walked back into the little room and walked into the locker room on the right.

I plopped my bag down on the floor and walked to the back corner where the shower stall was tucked in. I turned the water on the hottest it would get and stood underneath in my suit letting my sore muscle relax.

I was quite content like this so I stood there for some time.

Looking back now, I remember that it did strike me as odd that no one else was in here, but being as tired as I was I didn’t really think too much about it, I just assumed that they had all gone into the other locker room.

(This wasn’t uncommon, we usually all went into the same locker room after practice and didn’t use the other one)

I sat there in my euphoric shower of bliss I heard the door open and someone walk in. I didn’t really care who it was, I figured they would make themselves known in the next couple minutes by saying hi or something so I continued in my shower.

However, after a couple minutes of nothing I decided to pop my head out and see who was there. As my head gazed around the corner I was both alarmed and mortified to see the team captain standing there.

The BOY’s team captain!

I panicked I didn’t know what to do. My hands twitched nervously by my side and suddenly I was afraid to breath. As I saw him turn and walk into the bathroom stall I turned off the water and ran as fast as I could with wet feet across the tile floor.

My heart was beating incredibly loudly, I could feel it in my tongue! I opened the door to the locker room on the left and was relieved to see all the girls in there. I leaned against the wall and sank down to the floor taking deep breath to calm myself.

“Where were you?” one of the girls asked.

I stared with wide eyes and a red faced before mumbling out.

“I was in the locker room on the right.”

Some of the other girls eyes got big, “Didn’t you see that they changed the sign?” they asked

“No,” I moaned, “If I did I wouldn’t have gone in there.”

My friend Ella smiled at me, “It is okay, he didn’t see you and we’ve all done it at some point.”

I smiled gratefully feeling a little bit better when all off the sudden my stomach dropped and I felt even worse than before.

My face surely went white as a sheet and I suddenly felt light-headed.

“I left my bag in there. “ I whispered in horror.

The other girl turned once more to stare at me.

“Oh NO!” I moaned, “Now I’m going to have to let him know that I was in there so I can get my bag. “

I was on the verge of crying.

Now normally I would have been laughing at this and quite fine, even now I look back at this a smile at the humor of the situation.  But between 10,000 yards of swimming, 5 hours of sleep and now this, my emotions were quite on fray.

My friends though, were quite kind to me in my fragile state.

“It’s okay!” Renee reassured me, “I’ll go get it for you!”

With this statement my brave friend walked out to the door of the now men’s locker room and knocked on the door.

Greg (that’s the team captains name) opened the door looking very puzzled and only half-way dressed.

“Um…yeah?” he asked

Renee smiled, “Can you hand out the navy blue bag in there that’s not yours?”

Greg looked really confused, he walked back into the locker room though and came out with my bag a second later.

“Here.” He stated simply before walking away.

Renee smiled and handed the bag to me. I smiled gratefully and walked back to the locker room.

Two comments on this:

Firstly, I told you it wasn’t really my fault! I was just a victim of the mindless uncertainty of the locker room janitor!

Secondly, later on in the year the locker room on the right side became a women’s locker room again, but I was sufficiently through with it.

From this time on, I never used the locker room on the right side.

Lesson learned: Don’ trust paper, especially around water.