School Nurse Findlay Was Wrong

Do you remember the scoliosis tests in elementary school/junior high? All the girls would line up in the locker room, take our shirts off and, one-by-one approach the school nurse. She'd ask you to turn your back to her, bend at the waist and then unbend.

Or at least that's how I remember it.

We did this every year.

Every single year, Nurse Findlay would take one look at my shoulders, which were/are apparently freakishly wide, and say, "Do you swim? Are you on the swim team?"

I'd reply, "No."

She'd say, "You have really broad shoulders! You should swim!" And she's look at whatever teacher or assistant was there in the room with her and say, "Don't you think she should swim?"

The polite person would nod and agree and I'd walk away feeling like Paul Bunyan or some famous linebacker.

Which isn't exactly how a pre-teen girl wants to feel.

Today I put all that aside and I put my shoulders to the test.

In a desperate effort to get some cardio in, I went to lap swim at my local YMCA. Both the chiro and my PA said swimming would be OK. (Though I don't understand how swimming is different from biking?)

And the pool kicked my ass.

I alternated freestyle, breast stroke and back stroke for 30 minutes and I was a huffing, puffing, muscles-trembling mess at the end. That's with breaks at the end of each complete length of the 20M pool, by the way.

Swimming is a lot of work! And those big shoulders didn't seem to help much, Nurse Findlay!

It felt GREAT to get some real exercise in, though! I'm going back tomorrow.

And, just in case you're wondering, I don't harbor any ill will toward Nurse Findlay. In fact, she was perhaps one of a very few people in my life to say something positive about my body ... to help me form a positive opinion of myself ... though I didn't know it at the time.

The truth is, I DO HAVE broad shoulders. Both literally and figuratively. And at this point in my life, I have decided they are an asset. I like them now. I like how they look a little defined in this new body. I like how they make me look strong. Don't get me wrong ... no one will ever call me dainty or delicate because they really are rather wide and sturdy. 


But I'm totally OK with that.