I can swim! It took me over 31 years to be able to say that short three-word phrase – 25 of those basically due to my fear of water – but I can finally call myself a swimmer.

I went into Week 6 of swim lessons knowing it was crunch time. I gave myself eight weeks to learn to swim and I only had three more lessons to do it. The only thing standing between me and my goal was a tall, sturdy wall called side breathing.

Over the last couple of months, I've literally immersed myself in swimming. I hit the pool once or twice a week to practice between lessons (which has helped with my farmer's tan!), and when I have some free time, I'll hop on YouTube to watch videos on swim technique. With all that practice and studying, you'd think I'd be farther along by now, but nope, I still feel like I'm floundering. Learning to swim, it turns out, is a lot more difficult than I expected.

As kids, we all have that one favorite superhero with really cool special powers we wish we had. My favorite growing up was Aquaman and I'll tell you why as soon as you stop laughing. I know he isn't necessarily the most respected in the superhero universe, but I liked him because he could do one thing I couldn't: Swim.