My time as AmeriCorps with GMCG has been challenging. For one reason—I can’t jump out of the boat.
Now technically, it was never explicitly stated that I can’t jump out of the boat. I’m just assuming it's socially unacceptable to jump out of the boat while doing water quality testing because it poses the risk of nocking your crewmates in the water and ironically it’s much harder to perform water quality testing when you’re physically in the water. But that does not mean I'm not tempted. Every day. Even when it rains.
I’m as close to amphibious as a human being can get and I’m concerningly obsessed with water. It’s a consequence of having done competitive swimming from when I was seven years old to twenty-one. When I was in high school I swam for two hours every day. So I’ve been more or less conditioned to jump into water on sight without a passing thought. To my credit, I have never jumped into a highly polluted river flowing through a city or a literal swamp, but I nearly have. That being said I’ve been doing a very good job at staying in the boat.
And it's been torture.
I drink so much water and yet I am parched in the soul.
Never before have I been around so much sweet water without the ability to go in it. The sun is not pure and life-giving as the poets claim. It is a horrifying ball of gas and it wants to kill me. The water is a dark, void-like shelter and above all else is just really refreshing. I put my hand in the water when I don’t need to and graze my fingers against the surface to feel the soft tension. Sometimes I straddle the side of the boat and put one foot in, always thinking about sliding a little too far to the side. Pride is the only thing that stops me. As much as I want to get in the water I do not want to be “the one who fell in the drink.”
I will have my chance soon. August 15 is our last Volunteer Lake Assessment Program (VLAP) day on Ossipee lake, during which we will spend the entire day on a boat collecting samples and data from the deepest point of every bay on the lake and the lake itself. I’m certain it will be an event full of joy and merriment. And at some point, I will go into the water. Maybe it will be in the middle of the day and I will make it look like an accident, maybe I won’t have to make it look like an accident, maybe I’ll just jump off the dock at the end of the day. Regardless my head will be going under the sweet, sweet blue.
Madison graduated from Ithaca College last May and writes creepy short stories for fun. Maybe someday she'll have the courage to publish some. Learn more about Madison here!