The Swimming Song

by emily

When I was in college, this song held great meaning for me.  Something to do with boys, surely.  But even after my angsty undergraduate days, I still really love the metaphor of diving into something that can so easily kill you.  The danger lets you know that you’re alive and that’s what makes it worth the risk.  I like thinking about this when I wonder to myself why I do the things I do.  Why did I decide to spend my life writing and auditioning and facing near-constant rejection?  Why did I decide to buy a condo?  Why did I decide to get a cat when he’s just going to ruin our furniture?  Why did I decide to get a dog when she’s just going to pee and cry and be afraid?  Why will I surely decide to bring another human into this broken world?  Because.  I’ll hold my breath and kick my feet and move my arms around.  And it’ll be great.

In a more literal sense, having this song stuck in my head makes me want to make the following lists.

 

Places I Have Been Swimming So Far This Summer:

-Walden Pond.  Historic!

-Nahant beach.  Seaweedy!

-Central Florida.  The Atlantic Ocean.  Salty and warm and full of fish.

-An indoor public pool in my neighborhood that smelled like pee.  I swam laps.

-A river in Vermont.  We went tubing and it took like five hours and I kept getting stuck and Billy had to drag my tube along for me when I gave up.

 

Places I Would Still Like To Swim.  The Summer Isn’t Over Yet, After All:

-Public outdoor pools in Cambridge and Somerville.

-Maine.  The Atlantic Ocean.  It will be cold and it will have big waves.

-New Hampshire.  We’re going for a weekend to stay at a friend’s summer house and I’ve heard such stories about swimming in the lake there.  It’s supposed to be beautiful.

-New Jersey.  We’re going camping with friends from high school and we’ll go swimming in the ocean again.  Oh and there’s a river next to the campground!

 

Oh gosh, you guys, let us all just remember that summer is far from over and there are so many more places to swim.  Where have you guys swam (swum? swimmed?) lately?  Was it nice or was it too salty?  I have definitely asked a similar question before but who cares?  Not you!  Not me!  TELL ME YOUR TALES OF SWIMMING!  Did you hold your breath?  Did you kick your feet?  Did you move your arms around?