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	Podcast:		Other News
	Episode:		In grade school, the swim test humiliated me. In college, it nearly killed me.
	Category:		Government & Organizations
	Duration:		00:09:37
	Publish Date:		2019-06-29 12:00:00
	Description:		It’s 1985 — think New Coke and “We Are the World” — and little 8-year-old Gabe is shivering on the tile floor next to Jewish Community Center swimming pool in Canton, Ohio. I’d just wrapped up my “Advanced Beginners” swim class, and was lined up with the other kids awaiting our Red Cross cards. That card would be my ticket to the next class: Intermediate. The instructor came down the line and, when she handed me my card, it did not say “Intermediate” — it said “Advanced Beginners.” It appeared I would not be advancing at all. I repeated the class. And again I flunked. And again. I’d take the Advanced Beginners class four, possibly five times. This didn’t bother me much at first, but over time, my aquatic inadequacy began to mingle with my prepubescent body shame and aversion to macho male sports culture. The pool is where I began to understand, with the help of my peers, that I was not the sporting sort. Rather, I was the pale, short, physically awkward sort. So as soon as I was able,
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