Influencer soup

I was catching up with a friend next to a rooftop pool in London on a sweltering afternoon. The water resembled an influencer soup; dozens of people posing in the sun, taking hundreds of selfies currently clogging up Instagram's servers. I was right there by the pool too, so I’m entirely complicit. Any port in a heatwave though... As we were chatting, in walked a man I'd conservatively put in his mid 60s. He wasn't there to sunbathe or find his best lighting. He hung his towel on a hook, pulled on a swim cap and goggles, and got straight in. He surveyed the packed water, spotted a tiny gap along the edge, and started swimming lengths. While everyone else worked their angles, he plodded along with a slow, methodical, and splashy front crawl, completely unbothered by how much he stuck out. Whenever the selfie crowd drifted into his lane, they quickly learned via a rogue splash or an accidental thwack that he couldn't see a thing. To me, every collision was glorious. I’ll admit I was quietly judging the vanity around me, and here was this man making the radical choice to use a swimming pool as a swimming pool rather than a backdrop. What an icon! I want to be like him when I get to his age and hopefully long before. So, my message from the soapbox this morning is simple: channel your inner rooftop swimmer today. Put your goggles on, swim your own lane, and ignore any judgements internal or external.

Written by a randomly drawn subscriber, read by a human, then sent to the whole list. Its writer chose to share it here.