Reality is subjective! Mind over matter! Never quit! Never say die! Stay positive!
Ha very ha.
Volunteer at a nursing home or hospice. That is your endpoint. You are mulch.
The only question is how much screaming there’ll be inbetween.
Reality regulary takes people riding in their cars without a care in the world and shows them their insides for long minutes before they helplessly expire.
How people fail to respect reality is beyond me. I fear reality. I know it can break me.
Fortunately, human beings have a bad memory for pain. I’ve been broken many times, and forgotten it just as many.
But that is not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about drowing.
If you let the water into your lungs, you are done. Game over. But don’t think you can skip the end cutscene. Lizard panic sets in, breathing/coughing goes autonomic, you are unable to scream or signal for help, limbs flail irrationally, you sink and die quietly in incredible burning pain and terror, brain shutting down well after the rest, face a rictus of horror.
You cannot drown with grace. In fact, most ways to die involve no grace whatsoever.
Try accepting that right now. I actually can, but it’s because I’ve been broken enough times not to care anymore. Except while it’s happening, of course – then I care intensely.
To return to the topic, how does one not drown?
If there’s a hard bottom, say 12 feet or so, it’s incredibly simple. You close your eyes, sink, undress calmly, and push off. One breath. Repeat. You can last for days.
No bottom? Then you float, face just barely above the water, taking shallow breaths, chest distended. Or lazily backstroke towards some distant shore, resting at intervals.
When you get to land, you instantly feel that the trip was worthwhile. The difference between water and land is night and day.
But the only way you will get there is by not panicking about being in the water. By remaining calm, applying intelligent effort, and conserving energy. By accepting that you are in the water. By letting its waves cover your face and dictate your breathing. By adapting your whole locomotion to it. By stripping naked and defenseless against it. By accepting that you must move at an undulating crawl.
That is how you avoid drowning.
Of course, the smart thing would be to learn how to swim from someone who knows how, well before the need arises. And go nowhere near deep water.