Sometimes, a happy ending makes a terrible experience worth having, sometimes, it doesn’t.
While camping at a secluded lake today, I heard a dog barking loudly and noticed it swimming in the middle of the lake. It was heading towards the shore, but then for some reason, maybe 15 meters away from it, turned around and started swimming back, towards the other shore. And then did it again. And again. And again. Every lap the barks became quieter and soon turned into barely pronounced whining. The dog was clearly exhausted and struggling. I looked around, there was only one family on the beach and they were aware of the dog but did not seem concerned, so I assumed they weren’t the owners. It seemed inevitable that it was going to drown soon.
I grew restless and rushed into water to swim towards it. I was pretty sure I could not save it because it was a rather large breed and I am not strong enough to carry its weight but I knew i wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I didn’t try. I quickly realized why it kept turning away from the shore. It was very muddy, legs kept sinking into it, it wasn’t possible to find a solid ground. Like quicksand, the mud was swallowing my legs and I couldn’t even attempt swimming towards the dog. I ran around the lake in search of a less muddy entrance into the water, but had no luck.
At this point the dog was barely staying afloat. I made two more attempts to walk into the mud and had to turn back when it reached above my waist and I felt no ground to walk on. I finally sat on the beach, all dirty, tired and disappointed. And just helplessly looked away. I could not save it and it was time to accept its demise. I could still hear it making some noises, but it sounded like the end was several minutes away.
And right at this moment its owner showed up. The dog heard him whistling and shouting and made a last ditch attempt to reach the shore. And it got lucky, found a more rocky ground. Then the owner pulled it out.
What a terrible experience. I cried from helplessness. It lasted no more than 20 minutes, but i was so tired after that I couldn’t even feel happy that the dog survived. And yet, as strange as it sounds, I am glad this happened to me. Maybe, it is simply because my life was that boring and repetitive in the last several months. This awful experience made me feel alive.
Cant say I feel the same about Academic writing. The debate was interesting to judge, but the Academic writing part of it felt like a prolonged drowning. And for me it always is. There is usually a happy ending – I learn something new and I get a decent grade, but this kind of drowning never makes me feel alive.
This is not a MALAT type of post but it is exactly why i am going to post it. If I only aim to post what I can reference and do it in a proper APA format, I feel like I am not going to post much. So there it is.