COLUMN: Keeping your head above water
Skipping across the water at 30 miles per hour, I laid my inner tube into the trench of safety in between the wake powered by my boat and the smooth water next to it. As I was going around a bend in the water, a brilliant, personal realization came to me: this is craziness.
Why would anyone subject themselves to being pulled at ridiculous speeds across a field of water that feels nothing like water when coming to an abrupt and complete stop? Boating enthusiasts may disagree, but my Labor Day weekend spent on the water was a realization that we all have a comfort zone. And that day I crossed mine a bit.
There are experiences in all our lives which we snuggle up to and others we spend energy staying away from. What makes us want to try something new and painful is sometimes the drive necessary to succeed in life. Deciding where the effort is worthwhile is an individual and often contemplative choice.
Coming to the nation’s capitol and ‘hub of all things political’ was a soft reminder to me there are plenty of foreign tastes out there to be explored. The pace of life in Washington, D.C., is different than my Pineview Apartment days in Logan. There are new rules, new boundaries and unbroken waters to be explored.
I’ve walked by one presidential hopeful, gone through Chinatown and had a new definition applied to the term ‘fresh food’ at a nearby restaurant – all in the stretch of my first 24 hours here. Does Utah have a Chinatown?
I now have an identification card which acts as my lifeline to a safe trip into and out of my place of work. The congressional representatives and senators aren’t required to carry a similar card. They have a lapel pin to distinguish them from everyone else in a suit.
Whiplashing my head from the suit coat to suit coat of everyone I pass got old after a few hours. Pretty soon, the vivaciousness of the moment either overwhelms you or straps itself in next to you for the rest of the ride.
My day on the water, which was the first in a long run of years, taught me about my comfort zone. The water screaming past my face was only wonderful so long as I stayed on top of it. Every time I felt stopped and pulled under by its unmoving strength, I questioned my actual opportunity for fun. For some reason I remembered it being a fun experience.
How many of us have been outside of Utah in the past month, year or longer? The man I flew next to on my flight through Chicago discussed his ‘Utah experience’ with me. He was not of the religious majority of which I belong but bemoaned any faults of the region very little. In his thought process, he felt he saw the outside of the ‘bubble’ enough to come home and appreciate the distinctness of the area. It sounds to me like he is staying on top of the water. Are we?
Jacob Fullmer is a junior in political science and journalism trying to keep his head above cultural and political waters as an intern in Washington, D.C.