Musings from Dennis #84: My coach Uncle Hock hollered at a 12-year-old me as I stood at the side of the deepest end of the swimming pool, not able to see the depths below. And scared to bits. I had already learnt the breast stroke but I always start at the 4 feet side! But the coach yelled at me, (I mean the entire swimming complex could hear) and I was terrified of him because he was ever so fierce, so I cautiously obeyed and bent my knees to slowly jump in. Water engulfed me as I splashed around and started waving my arms about in sheer terror! Soon I realized, hey I wasn’t drowning! And my head is holding steady above water! Hey boy, he gleefully said “you just learnt how to thread water”! Isn’t that the same for us in our work sometimes? We may have ‘mean’ bosses who would not help or guide us, shove us to last minute meetings and give us projects that look way above ‘our pay grade’ – and we can’t protest nor quit due to varying reasons but then, after ‘jumping in’, we find ourselves having a skill we never knew we had! It was there all along! We adapted and we thrived.