Grand Rapids Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Share something about you
Anyone who's still around this afternoon, share something we might not already know or something interesting or anything you feel like sharing (your favorite color book, musician, whatever).
Re: Share something about you
I am a Tetris master. Back in the day, my score got so high, that it started going backwards. I think that means I beat the Tetris developers. I'm unstoppable.
(GRSP mentioned Tetris in a recent blog post and that made me happy. Also, it prompted Tetris to be top of mind when I read this post.)
I fail at my own game.
I always list my favorite musician as Tori Amos. I've never outgrown teenage angst.
Are you for real?!
That is shocking. What do you find gross about them?
Congratulations!!! What an awesome accomplishment!
Great job!
I was adopted.
Scary stuff.
I have a similar story. I was older than you were. We were at Wisconsin Dells and my sister and I went into the wave pool (we weren't even yet teenagers). We got pulled out by the waves and were struggling not to go under. Luckily we were near the edge and an adult swimmer plus the lifeguard were able to get us out. The lifeguard walked us back to our dad and step-mom who were oblivious to the danger we had been in. To the day I'm leery of wave pools.
My Profile
I hate water and all activities related to water. Well, aside from a controlled pool or being by a lake/ocean that isn't scary and wading in.
Tubing, canoeing, kayaking (well, haven't tried it), white water rafting, etc. hold no appeal to me. They all just seem like unfun, terrible, horrific activities.
Wow...this one actually surprises me for as outdoorsy and adventurous you and your husband are.
It surprises me too! And the use of the word "horrific" makes me sad. I get that not everyone loves water as much as I do, but I don't always understand how it can hold zero appeal. My husband did not know how to swim when I met him...I'm thankful that he loved me enough to teach himself how to swim so it could be something we do together.
Unfortunately my dislike of water doesn't stem from simply lack of knowledge, but from an irrational fear. And feeling fear and anxiety holds zero appeal for me. :-)
I can swim. I enjoy water in controlled situations. I have told Andy I will try kayaking and I still go tubing (since our friends always go) and try my best to like it. You wouldn't know I don't like it by looking, I don't make a fuss and am pretty good at keeping it in control as long as nothing goes wrong.
But, I have anxiety and a fear of drowning. So, even thinking about being in uncontrolled water actually causes my heart rate to increase and I start feeling anxious. Rationally I know I'll be fine, but the fear comes from an irrational place and is harder to control.
I totally understand. That is me with needles. I am impressed that you have learned to swim, given the fear!
This is the worst. It's so frustrating, because you know you're being irrational, but as much as you try to talk yourself down, it doesn't work because the fear goes far beyond rational thought. Or at least that's my experience with the dentist (which is what I was reminded of while reading this).
Just out of curiosity, did you have a bad experience with water when you were a kid?
It makes me sad that you can't enjoy water sports and activities.
No, but I was just always a little anxious w/water. I would always play in the shallow end, and if I swam to the deep end, I always wanted to be by the wall, just in case I got scared and needed to grab hold. I hated (and still hate) my head going under w/o me controlling it. Even when I was allowed to be on a boat w/o a life jacket, I still wanted to wear one, just in case. I did enjoy waterskiing to some extent and being pulled in a tube. I hated falling off obviously, but I felt okay because I was wearing a life jacket.
Oh, and our neighbors had a slide in their pool, and all my friends wanted me to go down (obviously I didn't want to, pry age 10?). My BF said she'd "catch" me at the bottom. So, I almost drowned her because once I went under in the middle of the deep end I started panicking and grabbed hold of her and pushed her under.
Our last tubing down a river adventure 3 weeks ago - guess who the coolest 29 year old on the river wearing a life jacket? I don't even care if I look ridiculous, it calms my nerves.
Juli, I'm apprehensive around water, but not to the extent that you seem to be. Wearing a life jacket while tubing is probably smart, regardless of one's comfort in the water or strength as a swimmer.
When you try kayaking, I would suggest a smallish inland lake without a current or boat traffic. I tried it once on a lake like that and loved it and then we went a second time on the Grand River in Spring Lake and I didn't like it as well. The current and boat traffic made it a lot more challenging for me.
Surprisingly, I've had a blast both times white water rafting (once in West Virginia and once in Tennessee). You have to wear life jackets, which obviously makes me feel somewhat better and you have a guide who wants to keep everyone in the boat and coaches everyone accordingly. If you like water skiing or being pulled in a tube, I think you might enjoy white water rafting--just choose an intermediate river to start on rather than an advanced.