This is for my lit narrative due Thursday. I realized how freakishly strange it sounds.
In any kind of culture, I always knew that children had to listen to their parent’s words as long as they were still callow with the world. Growing up in a Taiwanese family, even the smallest attempt to disobey my parents would result in, what I would like to say “dire” consequences. Even before I started believing in a religion, I also knew that obedience to parents from children was very crucial for good development.
I remember this experience very well, because if I hadn’t been noticed, it’s possible that I would not even be telling this narrative right now. My mother had brought my family to this family friend’s party in the summer. I was five years old then, and was really excited when we arrived at the party location. There were balloons and many sweets, typical things that appealed to a little toddler. It was a sunny day, and there was a pool outside of the building the party was supposed to be in. Amazed at the sparkles of sunlight the pool gave off, I pleaded for my mom to let go play in the water. Fortunately, my mom knew that there was going to be a pool available at the party, so she brought along my swim suit. My sister, small and because there were no floatation devices brought along for her, was not allowed to swim, thus she slept through most of the party. So, I changed into my swim suit and my heart was beating with excitement as I stepped into the cool, refreshing water.
Bored with just playing in the shallow, three-foot area of the pool by myself, I decided just to walk around the edges of the pool. Because I couldn’t swim, I would be able to hold on to the edges of the pool. After walking around many times of the pool, I started hopping around it, eventually letting go of the edge, but still holding on the edge occasionally when I needed support, unaware that I was sometimes going into deeper areas of the pool. Seeing the adults and other older people playing in the middle of the pool, I wanted to go to that area, too. So before I did, I came out of the pool to ask my mother permission if I could go into the middle of the pool, still unaware that it was also the deeper part of the pool. Knowing my capabilities, she kept saying no, but then I began to plead with annoyance. Suddenly her response became something like “Fine, do whatever you want”. Surprised, I asked her, “Really?” And she again replied with a no, but with a loud laugh because she was also socializing with other people of the time.
Clueless of her answer, I went into the middle of the pool anyway. Hopping into the middle of the pool wasn’t a big problem, and I was excited to swim in the “big kid” area. When I finally did get to the middle, I suddenly couldn’t move anywhere anymore. The only thing I knew at the moment was how to hop, which in a way, helped me gasp for air above the water. Water was going in my eyes, up my nose, flowing down and stinging the inside of my chest, and I was basically suffocating while also trying to inhale air to scream for help. Finally after two minutes of this torture, my sister woke up from sleeping on a beach chair next to the pool, and noticed me drowning. She notified my mother and my mom stopped her conversations and immediately jumped into the pool. When I was saved, I was crying so hard and shivering like the weather was under zero degrees, because of fear. Another reason that I was crying was that I was afraid my mom would scold me for not listening to her, but instead she simply reminded me to always listen to and not ridicule with her. Obviously, I learned a very important lesson that day.
That night before I could fall asleep, those feelings of suffocation kept replaying in my head, and I was still shivering for some reason. Even today I can still remember this experience very vividly in my head, and am reminded of the fact that when I know my parents are right, it is important to obey them, as it can do so much, so much to even save a life.
