I lie on my back in the shallow end of the pool. The choppy water flutters against my skin while the sun attempts to tan it's paleness. Mothers and their children are active all around me. The kids splash and throw swim toys to amuse themselves while the mothers sun bathe and chat lightly with friends. To them I'm just a teenage girl trying to tan, a girl that might even be trying to ignore the scene around her, but I'm not. I watch them. I see the giggling babies splashing their miniature hands into the exotic blue water, the annoying bugs circling the children like moths to a flame, and even the stern faced lifeguards just waiting for their shift to be over so they can have freedom too. I see it all.

Assorted flavors of sunblock perfume the air, along with the almost sickening smell of the chlorine. The sun beats down as the day goes on, adults and children never stopping to think about what life truly means, they only stop for sunblock, I miss that. I watch people in swimsuits bound off the diving board from afar, never doubting their abilities until their "dive" earns them a red stomach from a belly flop. I watch little children learning how to swim for the first time, their arms flail and cut at the water working so hard to make their parents proud. One day they'll be swimming in the deep end. I watch it all. I feel life grow and breathe while I lie there in the shallow water. And they say we're just teenagers...