Sellwood to Saint John's aka Portland Bridge Swim

A month ago, I did a thing. I swam from Sellwood to Saint John's with my friend Swim-emma. It took six hours and is my longest swim to date and only made me hungry for more. I thought I would be hungry when I got out, but I wasn't for several hours. I thought I would drop like a stone and sleep for hours; I couldn't get to sleep that night. I thought I would feel uber proud of myself; instead, I feel humbled. While this is a huge accomplishment, it feels like the beginning of something rather than an end. Dreams of future longer swims tug at the back of my mind as I go about my day.

 Looking ahead, I know that as I complete my last two years of graduate school, my opportunities to get in the water will only get fewer in number, but this is not the time in my life to focus on swims. This is a time in my life to use them for renewal and affirmation. Swimming will have to take on a different role in my life. Last week, in school, we read about Matuska's Life Balance Model. The model conceptualizes congruence and equivalence of activity configuration in the environment for creating a balance of activities to support individual health and well-being. Basically, it's not just doing the things we want to do the amount we want to do them; it's about doing them in proportion to other things we need and want to do within our lives. This is my version of the illustration from Matuska's research.

I made the environment broader and more encompassing than the original because it seems that our lives' environmental context deserves more than just a nod maybe because the environment feels so out of control right now with COVID restrictions, wildfires, and political chaos. Anyhoo! This isn't a blog about OT school, its a swimming blog. So here are some photos from 8/29 that paddle support took.