COURSE-CORRECTING IN REAL TIME
I will never forget the first time I got caught in an ocean riptide. When I had looked from the shore, all I had noticed were waves rolling in. Being young and an inexperienced ocean swimmer, I never anticipated that an unseen current could suddenly threaten me. But when I was a dozen yards out, I felt the sickening pull of the riptide.
My first instinct was to swim to shore, as fast and as hard as I could. But I never got anywhere; instead, I sank, lower and lower. Fortunately, an older teenager was out there with me. He grabbed my shoulder and yelled, “You need to swim the other way!”
It was hard to wrap my head around navigating away from my target, but I was too tired to do anything other than follow him. When the riptide's hold loosened, we turned and swam parallel to the beach, then angled toward shore.
Finally stepping onto the sand, I fell to my knees, completely spent. But I learned an invaluable lesson: instead of fighting the current, I had to go with it. To navigate my way out of the unexpected, I needed to stay calm and focused so I could course-correct my way to safety.
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