Why Work isn't Everything

Gretchen Roufs is pictured with Matias and Camila, who have been taking her swimming lessons since they were babies.

Key Takeaways:
• One industry veteran found joy in teaching American Red Cross swim lessons.
• Swimming lessons can combine fun, build confidence, and teach essential water-safety skills.
• Finding meaningful pursuits outside the commercial cleaning industry is valuable.

In my early days of writing this column, I confessed that I personally needed to do something notable in my own free time. Ultimately, I decided to become an American Red Cross swimming instructor. Twenty-five years later, I’m still teaching swimming lessons. In fact, this year, for the first time, I welcomed a 2-year-old swimmer whose mother had been my swimming student. I could never have imagined all those years ago that I’d be teaching a second generation of kids.

My students range from 6-month-old babies to people in their 60s. I teach one or two swimmers at a time, and I’m never more than an arm’s length away from them in the pool. This means the 8-year-olds who have been swimming with me since they were babies sometimes challenge me to keep up with them.

This year, I taught more than 70 lessons. Because I have a day job, I spend my Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons at the pool. Even with that, I have a waiting list. Just last week, I received a text from a friend with photos of her brand-new baby and one simple note: “Your newest swimmer arrived last month!” With that, my 2027 list of swimmers is underway.

The American Red Cross instruction method involves lots of playing, singing, and diving for toys. When I announced to one kid that a lesson was over, he protested, “I thought we were just playing! I didn’t know that was our lesson!” This is exactly what I strive to do: make sure kids are having fun in the pool while they learn how to swim.

Water safety is a big part of my lessons. I teach the swimmers how to get themselves to the side of the pool, hang on to the edge, and crawl out. We do a lot of “hopping like bunnies” so kids know that if they get a little too deep, they can hop on their tippy toes to push off the bottom and get to shallower water. And to parents I say, “Always make sure a specific grown-up is assigned to watch a specific kid. If there’s a group of grown-ups watching a group of kids, nobody is accountable for each child, and sadly, accidents happen."

Nothing has changed over the past 25 years of swimming instruction. New swimmers still don’t want to get their faces wet, but once they do and discover the joys of swimming underwater, you only ever see their faces when they come up for air. Small talk with kids always yields the same responses: grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken fingers are their favorite foods; recess is their favorite school subject; and Spiderman and the Little Mermaid are popular characters, but their all-time favorite is still Elmo. As for deep water, once a kid has the courage to go off the diving board and execute the knees-shaking jump, the first thing out of their mouth when they come to the surface is, “I want to do that again!”

That’s exactly what goes through my mind every year when I think about teaching for another season: I want to do that again! I still feel thankful for the reminder that one of the greatest blessings in life is to be passionate about what we do. Not just at work, but equally important, in our free time.

Gretchen Roufs, a 25-year janitorial supply industry veteran, owns a marketing and public relations company in San Antonio. To suggest someone you think should be featured in “Freetime,” contact her at Gretchen@GretchenRoufs.com.