Items
topic_interest is exactly
swimming
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2020-05-11
Desert Plague
Once summer hit Arizona and all the clubs and pools remained closed due to the pandemic, my friends and I were forced to get creative. We managed to find several hiking trails outside of Phoenix that led to glorious water (a treasure out here). We would spend hours at the little pools and waterfalls, talking about what we missed from our previous lives. Sometimes we would bring packs of White Claws- a COVID hit, and pretend we were in Vegas at the dayclubs. Back then, everything was a big ‘what if.’ We all thought that by September of 2020 we would be back in classes, moving on with our lives and not giving a second thought to the mayhem the pandemic brought on. We had no idea what the future held, but we were able to escape to our desert oasis and enjoy one another the way we deserved. -
2021-01-14
D.C. Kept Swimming Open During the Pandemic. It May Have Saved Me.
This is a story I wrote in Washington, D.C. in January 2021, during the pandemic, and in the immediate aftermath of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. I had taken up swimming during the pandemic because the city happened to keep some pools open for lap swimming. This new activity brought me solace and comfort during a very difficult time for our city, our nation, and for me personally. This story captures all of this and distills it into a single poignant and emotional moment of solitude and togetherness at the end of the story. -
2020-04-17
Swimming as an Essential Activity
While Florida is not predicted to peak until the first week of May, some cities are reopening closed beaches now, in mid-April. This hit the national news with much controversy, spawning the hashtag #floridamorons on social media. The day before I saw this article, I spoke with my parents who are at the New Jersey shore. They told me one man there was ticketed for walking his dog on the beach and a couple was ticketed and threatened with jail time for being on the beach.