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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"