After years away, at first due to the pandemic and then just because I’d found options that work better for me and my family, I’ve started revisiting the Cowichan Aquatic Centre with some regularity. I wouldn’t go as far to say frequently but I’m hoping the trend of around once a week continues.
I used to be a regular upstairs at the gym. That was in the pre-pandemic, pre-renovation times. A lot has changed since then. Two years of COVID prompted me to invest in gym equipment of my own at home, and my favourite trainer has moved online. My need for the gym’s services has effectively vanished.
That said, my need for the aquatic side of the facility seems to be increasing. My poor joints are a wreck. I blame the young athlete in me. I remember being in university and training hard for my varsity sport every day, just punishing my body. I remember telling somebody once: “I’ll pay for this when I’m older,” and boy was I right. The bummer is… I’m older now and I’ve got a few choice words for younger me.
Back then I didn’t realize it would be hard to walk down the stairs every morning. I didn’t know I’d need two hands to squeeze my water bottle because my thumb joints are so sore. I didn’t even think about one day having a neck that likes to get stuck in one position and hurts like the dickens to move.
If only I’d have known…
Anyway, back to the Cowichan Aquatic Centre. The water is so kind and forgiving. The steam and sauna rooms give me a sense of relief that I can’t seem to find elsewhere so I’ve been visiting once a week or so for a while now, just to try to loosen up.
It’s funny being back in the building I spent more than 10 hours a week at for years and years. I still feel connected in a way, I still feel a sense of ownership, but it’s just not the same anymore and thankfully, I don’t need it to be. It works for what I need it for now and I think that’s the mark of a good community facility — it works for what you need it for, regardless of who you are and what you need. In that sense, it’s kind of like an old friend.
One of my old teammates from university, who has been my best friend for 20 years now, give or take, has come to visit me from the Yukon a couple of times recently. She’s got a son playing hockey elsewhere on the Island and her mom on the Mainland has been ill, so she’s been checking in on her as well.
This is the friend I knew before cell phones were a thing, before email was widespread and before the internet had pictures. This is the friend whose phone call I’d take no matter the time or the situation, the friend that I would get on an airplane in the middle of the night for if she said she needed me. I’m fortunate to have that type of a friendship even if it’s generally not an every day one.
Our visits are few and far between as we’ve both got busy lives — each with jobs and two children, three if you count our husbands. When we get together though, no matter how long it’s been since we’ve talked or since we’ve texted or seen each other, we just return right into that comfort zone. Kind of like being at the Cowichan Aquatic Centre — we always seem to be there for each other despite our changing needs.
Given we were university teammates, she knows the kind of damage I incurred when we trained at school all those years ago. I know for sure that she does because her body is wrecked, too.
You know what I should do the next time she visits, I should introduce her to my other friend, the Cowichan Aquatic Centre.