SWIMMING
A Plan B Essay by Lauren Groff
She swims in open water, the alternate self.
There is no boat. She is alone. There is no predicting the conditions. Some days, the water is flat and still, her strokes pushing through a membrane of surface warmth and into a chill beneath. Some days, the waves are so vast they lift her high on their crests and send her hurtling down, swift as falling, into the trough. Those days, every breath wrested from the spray is a triumph, and she is shaky and grateful to touch dry land again.
The water itself is unpredictable: sweet and fresh and so clear she can see the snakes sleeping in the mud a hundred feet below, or so salty her tongue swells and her skin burns and she can't see her own diving hands.
Because this is open-water swimming, she is discovering where she's going as she goes. It has taken a long time to come to terms with the fact that the purpose is not to arrive, only to swim.
This does not mean that there is no urgency. There is always some sort of urgency: she chases down the moon sliding on the tops of the waves, she circles the candy-striped buoy and returns, she follows this school of fish into the hot mouth of a river where the trees lean blowsily, thickening the water into soup with the rot of their leaves. Some days, it is all she can do to kick her way out of the clinging weeds.
There is danger, a great deal of it. There are sharks that circle her. They wait. Their teeth shine in the murk. Their bodies lazily trail her shadow as it darts over the coral reef. There are barracudas and motorboats and freak waterspouts touching down from the sky. She doesn't like to imagine it, but there is always the possibility of drowning.
Swimmers learn to counteract their fear with tricks. She sings to herself, voice burbling underwater and transforming the lyrics to nonsense. She counts until she loses count. She dreams, wide awake, of food, a whole smorgasbord just for her, banana bread and cheese soufflé and tiny exotic fruits in aspic. In this way, she fools the terror.
Read the assigned primary source. Annotate the reading using one of the recommended digital annotation tools or take notes as you read. As you read, you should: Underline important items Circle key words Highlight critical information Write notes in the margins Write down thoughts, questions, and connections as your mind is thinking through the text. Use your annotations or notes to answer the questions on the Primary Source Annotation Activity Worksheet provided in this module.
1. Text Overview: Summarize the main idea in your own words.