Kid Learns That Swim Teacher Matthew Is Not Returning, Gets Very Sad, Boycotts class

Matthew, Kina’s swim teacher for the last several months, has not been around for the last five weeks or so. We knew he was an actor and in college, and we assumed that he was simply working on a gig or on the road, but when Laurea asked the lifeguard in passing when Matthew was coming back, her reply was, “He’s not coming back.”

This all happened within earshot of Kina, his most devoted fan, who immediately burst into tears. She has not bonded with either of Matthew’s steady replacements, who are less funny and more intense than Matthew had been. We think she had been counting the weeks until he would return, and learning that he would not return was too much for her to bear.

Laurea convinced her to hop into the pool for a bit, to blow some bubbles and give it a go with her new teacher, but she couldn’t stop crying and eventually asked to leave.

By the time I got there, she was playing in the park and feeling fine, but I’m not sure what it will be like to go back to swim class. She can swim now, of course—all Matthew’s doing, really—and could go about the rest of her life learning to be a better swimmer in other ways, but I think she really misses having a wonderful swim teacher.

This is the first adult whose departure Kina has really felt, and while it came as a bit of a surprise to us, it really shouldn’t have. Matthew was supportive and splashy and patient and trustworthy, and while I get that nobody wants to teach kids to swim in the basement of a condo building in Maspeth forever, I hope he knows that he did right by one student of his. She misses him, and he should know that she’s learned how to breathe.

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