Frank came into my life mysteriously. He was only there for a short time but he had a lasting impact. It was during my WSI (Water Safety Instructor) training that I first met Frank; he was taking his WSI again after many years of teaching because he’d become burnt out and was looking for a way to recharge his teaching batteries. By the end he was, by far, the most creative instructor I have ever had the opportunity to work with. He used to show up for his classes with a tickle trunk full of stuff for the kids.
In the first (and only) session that I taught at Acadia pool, we had to be there for lessons very early in the morning. One day in the middle of the session I woke up half an hour after lessons had started. I promptly got out of bed and started sprinting for the pool. This was the second time in a week that I was late for work.
At the bottom of the hill from my dormitory, I ran into Frank. He was strolling along at a leisurely pace whistling a tune. He said in a cheerful voice “Good morning to you…” I remember saying “We are late for lessons, we better hurry.” He just smiled, looked at me and said: “I don’t run for anything. You’ll still get there whether you run or you walk. One thing that I have learned in life is that in the end it doesn’t matter if you run or walk, you still get there.” I couldn’t believe that he had such a cavalier attitude about being late. But, I walked with him anyway.
Ironically, when we got to the pool the power was out and lessons had been put on hold until the power came back on, which happened shortly after Frank and I arrived. The impact of what he said on the way to the pool really hit home – it really didn’t matter that I had sprinted most of the way to the pool.
From this point on, what Frank said has always been there floating around in my head. I spent many years running to work, running for traffic lights, and running for the bus. Every time I ran for something, his words would come back to me: “I don’t run for anything. You’ll still get there whether you run or you walk.” It has only been recently that I have adopted his philosophy. Why run? I am still here and most times it didn’t matter whether I ran or walked – the only person who ever really cared was me.