In college and now in the corporate world, whenever I participated in the get-to-know-one-another game of “two truths, one lie,” you know, the one where each person states two truths about themselves and one lie, and the rest of the group guesses the lie, and that those three sentences define your role in the group, I would always go with:
- I’m from Hawaii
- Reason: I learned early on that it is cool to be from Hawaii.
- I don’t know how to swim
- Reason: CURVEBALL! What?! You just said you’re from Hawaii.
- I’ve surfed three times in my life
- Reason: ANOTHER CURVEBALL! Okay, you jokester. Nothing like throwing out numbers for a good “GOTCHA” moment.
I was born and raised in Hawaii and learned to swim in January 2024. I almost failed my high school swim test twice and tend to shy away from the pool/water at every turn. I learned to swim as a 30-something-year-old. One month after my first swim lesson as an adult, I signed up for a 70.3 Ironman Race without any triathlon experience (you’re probably telling yourself, “No, duh…you didn’t know how to swim until just now,” lol). Why?
Side note: Why do these games exist in the corporate world? I’ve never seen a point in these games; people go too deep with their facts or too shallow. Nothing like kicking off an 8 AM SWOT analysis meeting after hearing Carol’s story about being separated from her twin sister, reconnecting at summer camp, swapping lives, and then trying to convince their parents that their feelings aren’t valid and that they should uproot their lives and their kids know better. This, of course, is followed by Pat’s lie that his favorite color is green. Plot twist: It’s Red! Now, let’s SWOT.
We back: You now know that #1 is true, and #2 is also true. So yes, #3 is a lie. I’ve only surfed once in my life, and that was before learning how to swim (more on this story for another blog post). But why? How did I live in Hawaii and not know how to swim? Without getting into the specifics, my parents worked too long hours and had to focus their budget on feeding multiple kids and family members, and we couldn’t afford swim lessons (plus I did Karate, which was way cooler (at the time)).
When I went to the beach with the family, we learned how to swim by being taken out to a depth where we wouldn’t be able to touch the sand and then “swim” back. By swim, I mean doggie paddle to a spot where I could finally feel the sand again. This “swim” probably lasted a total of 10 seconds. And that was that.
Fast forward to high school and in the middle of the swim test; I am getting yanked from the pool by our PE teacher after one lap. As I try to catch my break and suck in as much air as I can, the conversation goes:
PE: Do you know where you live?
Me: Hawaii?
PE: Yes, and what type of body of land is it?
Me: An island?
PE: Yes. Take swimming lessons.
Me: *flop* My fragile ego is flopping as I am embarrassed in front of my peers, and my body is flopping as, after this fantastic pep talk, I still don’t know how to swim.
Luckily, out of sheer will and not wanting to be the school’s laughing stock for not passing PE and not wanting to take PE more times than I needed to, I “swam” the required number of laps to pass the test. And by swim, I mean doggie paddling / kick-boarding / pull buoy assisted swimming (1 lap) / barely drowning. I passed, and I hated swimming. It would be years since I even stepped back into a pool for actual swimming. And by swimming, I mean actual swimming 🙂
My first triathlon is in 6 months, and I just learned how to swim in my 30s, and I am proud of it. And now, in 7-months, when I participate in two truths, one lie I can happily say:
- I’m from Hawaii
- I raced in and completed a 70.3 Ironman Race
- I’ve surfed five times in my life
TLDR: I’m from Hawaii. I don’t like corporate get-to-know-you games. I learned how to swim in my 30s, and my first triathlon is in six months.