With all the craziness that's going on, I can't help thinking that I am here at W&L only through the accident of fate. I mindlessly refill my water bottle for the fifth time today because I want to be super hydrated and ready for swimming ODACs. Then, I remember from my poverty class that 638 million people in the world are "destitute," meaning they don't have access to safe drinking water or safe water for them is more than a 45 minute walk. I easily could have been one of those people.
I could have been a Syrian refugee, like Yursa Mardini who swam the 100 fly (one of my events!) for the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team at the Rio Olympics. Her house was destroyed in the Syrian civil war, so she fled with her sister, Sarah, to Lebanon then Turkey. It was arranged that she and her sister would be smuggled to Greece by boat with 18 other refugees, even though the boat was meant to fit only six people. At sea, the motor on the boat broke, so the Mardini sisters got in the water and pushed the boat for three hours until they reached Lesbos. I can't help thinking what if I were there in the vast, open water, and my parents and family were sitting with the other 16 refugees in the boat.
Or I also could have been one of the 66 million girls denied education. Maybe I could have been like Shabnam, a 16 year old girl from Mankapur, India, who has to make a four hour trek to and from school everyday. Twenty hours a week, she hikes, disregarding her family's wishes for young marriage; she hikes for her love of science and learning; she hikes, reverently watching the sun rise and fall. She tells Glamour columnist Tara Brahampour that she feels "very hurt" but feels "like she is doing this for her [married] sisters" who did not have this opportunity. I can only hope to make decisions like hers if I were in that situation.
There are an infinite number of 'what if' circumstances, and somehow, I am at here at W&L where the sky is crystal blue while a tornado is wrecking havoc in my hometown, New Orleans. I could have been born anywhere, but I am here, and all I can do is try to make sense of this crazy world and be mindful of what is ahead. Maybe when I swim, I can keep in mind Yursa and Sarah who gave all their strength to push the refugee boat forward. And my cousin Juslin who inspired me to swim and taught me how to fly.
But, there, by the grace of God, go I.
