This is the conclusion to a long running trial for my oldest daughter (and myself, if I was to be honest, I was more nervous than she was!), her diploma A in swimming in The Netherlands. (You can read the first two posts here and here).

Brief Recap

In the Netherlands, the kids have their first "real" swimming diploma (Diploma A) roughly at the age of 6 (give or take). In comparison to some other countries, it is a pretty rough test. The swimming part is pretty normal, but the fact that the kids have to be able to swim for a length of time in clothes (including shoes), is a little more than what is required for some other countries at that age.

Anyway, it is a pretty essential skill, seeing as there is water pretty much everywhere in this country!

So, in previous installments of this saga, I was writing about how our girl was finding it difficult to keep up with the physical demands of the swimming (she's a small one, and not keen on sporty stuff), and so for the first time she (and I) was encountering a situation that she might not be able to pass. So, I was writing about the mentality of accepting the failure, and learning, whilst going down (not sinking) fighting! All the while, enjoying our father-daughter time practicing in the pool.

Back to today

So, today was "Judgement Day"! The exam for the diploma, and a test of her skills and courage! In the weeks beforehand, members of the class that were definite fails had been given their schedules for the repeat classes in the next session... However, our girl remained constantly on the borderline of fail and pass, she was good in certain areas but struggled in others.

In a merciful twist (or a clever trick), today was actually the graduation ceremony with a "pretend" test. The "real" test was last week, when the kids were told it was a practice exam. And it was there where we found out whether she had passed or not. (She did pass, but it was a secret! Not even something that I could share with Steemit!).

However, to all intents and purposes it was a real exam for our girl. Just oddly festive! As you can see from the pictures, the national colour of Netherlands is orange! What you can't see in the photo is the loud music that is echoing through the swimming pool...

The Swimming Exam

Funnily enough, this was the bit that I had worried most about, but in the end was the least problematic! In this photo, she had already taken off her singlet and t-shirt. So apart from that, that was what they had to swim in, for the B and C diplomas (new challenges...), they swim in progressively heavier clothing! However, that will be a challenge for after the summer!

There were quite a few laps done of breaststroke, which was generally good, but today wasn't her best show, but good enough keeping in mind that last week she did really well! Also, there was floating and treading water as well as backstroke, all of which were strong. Diving and swimming underwater were also no problem either, which was a great improvement on last year, when she would be terrified of getting her face/hair wet! In fact, this time she had one most beautiful dive into the water that got pointed out for special attention (lol, proud father moment!)!

The most problematic part, and I think the part that they were most keen to point out as potential future problem, was the freestyle. For some reason, she has trouble getting the right arm around. However, that is a solvable problem, that we can work one when we mess around in the pool!

The little surprise at the end, was that for the last part of the test, the parents jumped into the pool fully clothed. It's been a long while since I've had to swim in clothes. In fact, it was at the lifesaving diplomas that we had to do in Australia for school, and I remember having similar problems that my daughter has now...

A Proud Father

So, although today was a "fake" test and the "real" test was done last week. The fact that I couldn't tell my daughter how proud I was for a whole week made it seem like a real one for me as well!

She was so happy that she passed, she will be taking her diploma to school tomorrow (it is a big thing here!), and we will be secure in the knowledge that, in principle, if she falls into a canal, we have about 5 extra minutes before the situation becomes incredibly dire! Enough time to finish off what we were doing before...

Most of all, I am so proud that she rose up to the challenge, faced her fears of being in the water and succeeded (not without struggle and worry, but not being overcome). Of course, if she hadn't succeeded, she would have still had the knowledge that she had faced and overcome her fears, and that the next time would just be easier.

It is probably something that will come up more often as I grow as a father, but there are things that are completely out of our hands. We can help and train and educate, but we can't complete the challenges for our children, we can only prepare them as best as we can and then cheer them on from the sidelines...