lake mermaid

some of my most cherished days of the race are days that start out unplanned and end in quality time with my friends. this is a short story of one of my favorite days of the race.

we were at midpoint debrief in lake atitlan, guatemala. the day began with me being sick which really stunk. milena, one of the most generous people on our squad, had offered to buy me coffee that day. i debated for a while if i was going to go out, but the thought of iced coffee (a BIG treat) had me out of bed.

we began our walk down the street and landed at the coffee shop. we ordered and were on our way to the lake. on the way to the lake, we saw clay, our logistics coordinator who had been visiting us that week, walking down the street alone. as a joke we said “you have to come with us now” because of the buddy rule. to our surprise, he agreed. we headed to the lake, relaxed for about an hour, and headed back to the hostel.

on our way back i saw aidyn (another one of the most generous people on my squad), and she offered to buy me dairy free ice cream. i was SO elated, and i obviously said yes. aidyn and i walked back to the hostel while i told her about my day. she said she had never gone to the lake despite us being there all week, and so i offered to take her. having only gone to the lake once, i desperately tried remembering how to get to the “sitting rock” without cutting open my leg on the rocky cliffs.

we finally made it and noticed this woman we didn’t know sitting on the “sitting rock”. aidyn went over to go talk to her and i followed after her about 10 minutes later. we found out her name was emma and she was traveling the world with her boyfriend. she told us cool stories, shared her dreams, and updated us on the u.s. which was shocking and also weird because we’ve been so out of touch with the u.s. for 6 months.after about an hour of talking, she left.

aidyn and i started walking back when aidyn said, “i really want to jump in”. we carefully climbed down he rocks, aidyn gave me all her jewelry, and she dove in fully clothed. i have genuinely never seen a human so happy in the water, and i kept joking she was like a lake mermaid. i watched from the shore as she swam and swam until it was getting dark out.

we headed back to the hostel and then went to dinner where i ate a lot of french fries (thank you Jesus for tourist towns). we ended our night watching a movie with our friend philip and squad leader stephen.

nothing particularly amazing happened on this day, and still it is one of my favorites because of the quality time i got to have with people i love.

to everyone reading this, i love y’all and i pray you’re all doing well.

thank you for reading about one of my favorite days.

love,

kori