I still don’t know what to write, so I’m randomly choosing an emoji a day and writing 200 words about it. Another one of my writing slump cheats. Today’s emoji is ??‍♂️

The other shore looks far, but I’m gripped with a sudden urge to swim across this lake. Not that far, of course. Probably, a few hundred metres or so. Nothing that would take longer than 20min swimming…probably. *Gulp. I’d never done anything like this before. And I came here alone, a foreigner in Finland, with no one else who would know I was missing if ever anything happened. And what about my stuff? Just leave them here?! But I comforted myself that there were lifeguards on duty, and there were other families not too far away. It’s a strange compulsion, driven almost by an animal instinct. Why do I feel so compelled to swim across? I don’t know. What’s on the other side? I don’t know. But what I do know is that the unknown is blaring out into my ears. A sense of wild, primal adventure awaits, and some ancient part of me is raring to go. What the hell. 

I dived. 

The cool water was such a rare pleasure to be cutting through. It’s late afternoon now, and the faint sunlight glitters off the surface. I’m wading through sparkling gems of light. All I hear is the sound of my own breath. All I feel is the fatigue from my arms and legs. But that deep joy! What a strange cocktail of feelings - so intensely alive yet also so hyper-vigilant. Occasionally, when my arms tire, I just slow down and float on my back. Can you imagine how it feels like to be floating in the sky, among the clouds, yet feel like you’re underwater, only hearing the cadence of your own breath as a signal that you’re still alive? Yes, that’s how it feels like as I floated on my back. Surreal. 

A few swim-float-swim cycles later, I reach the other shore. The pine trees by the shore forms a shadow over the water, and it got colder. I’m eagerly reach out to stable ground, but found no purchase. Then, my paddling feet hit the soft soil. I stand up from the water. A film of water runs down my skin. Emerging from the surface like this, half-naked, panting and heaving, I feel like I had just fought a wild beast. I looked up at the tall imposing pine trees, like silent sentinels protecting the forest. “You shall not pass!” they seem to say. Stepping up the shore slowly, like a cat on the hunt, I scan the surroundings. No one else is here. I feel like I’d just discovered a new land, with a spear in hand and bloodlust in mouth. For one brief moment, it was just a showdown between an ancient caveman, a hunter, a wanderer, an explorer, up against the mighty and monstrous Nature. 

Right up till some hikers strolled into scene.