Lake water

“The forceps of our minds are clumsy things and crush the truth a little in the course of taking hold of it.”
~ H.G. Wells

When I was a kid, I would spend my summer days at a lake named 11th Crow Wing near the small Northern Minnesota town where I spent the majority of my childhood. Summer was magical at that time of my life; in my memory the days were always sunny and the lake water always cool and clean.

In the morning I would pedal my bike from home to the beach, coasting down the hill by Schroeder’s house with no hands on the handle bars, the wind blowing my bleached blonde hair back off my face, feeling every bump and dip in the worn asphalt. As an adult I wonder how it happened that I never took a tumble going down that hill, when as a child I took it for granted that I’d reach the bottom and be able to continue on from the asphalt to the left turn onto the gravel road that eventually led past Sand Hill and then on to the beach.

Afternoons generally found me dreading the bike ride home, so I’d put it off as long as I could. I would take a different way home than I took in the morning; it was a little longer but there were no steep up-hill bike rides and much of the road was shaded by huge pine trees. I would pedal slowly, wishing the day to be just a little longer so I could bask just a little longer in the summer glow.

Between those bike rides my time at the beach was usually in the water, swimming from the sand to the platform dock parked out from shore. I was fearless in the water, darting in and out from under the dock, winding myself around the support bars, keeping my lungs full of air and my eyes wide open. Once in a while I’d get a nose full of lake water, which would make me choke and sputter, make my nose sting, make my eyes water, make me cough and wheeze until I could catch my breath again. Afterwards the taste of lake water would stay in my mouth, no matter what I did to get rid of it, sometimes even hours later when I was at home and the beach was miles behind. If I think about it hard enough even now, I can still feel that sting in my nose and my eyes will water a little.

About yesterday …

Out of 250 applicants only five were interviewed, so essentially they felt me to be in the top 2.5%. Personally, I believe that to be a huge accomplishment in and of itself and I will be holding that fact in my internal How Much I Kick Ass folder for when I need to bolster my failing ego again.

They’ll make a decision by next Friday, they told me.

In the meanwhile, I’ll sit here with the taste of lakewater in my mouth, nose stinging and eyes watering.