While swimming at the YMCA, I had a youngster swim up and start talking. He was a nice enough kid. A little large, but nice in manner and spoke like he knew me for a long time. You don't get that very much at our YMCA, so I continued the conversation. We proceeded to talk about what we were both doing at the Y, etc... I told him about the kids, which were swimming around the shallow end. He in turn told me he was just learning to swim and could not go any deeper.
This was no little kid. He was only about 12 or so, but he probably weighed in at about 300+ pounds. I think one of the reasons he wanted to talk, is that I spoke to him like he was just like everyone else I speak to. I doubt that most people treated him with much kindness because I would guess most judge him by his size, not his personality. From the reaction(s) he made when I asked him how he liked swimming in the big pool, I doubt anyone had talked to him much during his visit. I could not see a band around his wrist so I could not tell if he was there for day camp or not. It was not brought up in the conversation, so I didn't ask. We can leave that for the next time I talk to him, if I see him around later on.
Back to the conversation. While we were paddling around, he had pointed out his girlfriend. He said, with a rather proud tone that she was smiling and waving at him, "Shes big, like me!". I told him, "That doesn't matter, its all relative." He immediately replied, "Yeah, all my relatives are big too!" I do not thik he understood why I was smiling.
Hopefully, we can continue the conversation in the future.
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