Growing up in Southern California, people were always talking about going to the river. The Colorado river. I never had an opportunity to go until now. I never really knew I wanted to go until now. My friend’s family has a house here, it’s right on the shore. Straight out in front of us is a small island in the middle of the river. Since we’re been here we have been on several intense dune buggy rides, I’ve had several weed smoking sessions (or, “team meetings” as he calls them) with my friend’s dad, played yard games and got drunk with older christian conservatives, swam to the island 3 times, swam across to Arizona alone. This morning I came across a huge catfish tried to a metal contraption on the beach. It was beached and looked so sad. I pushed it into the water but it was still attached,so I went back to the house and got some scissors to free it. We paddled to the island this afternoon and smoked weed and collected rocks. Basically I’ve had a beautiful time here, and it made me want to set higher swimming goals for myself. I want to swim a long distance in open water. I just think nature is beautiful, and I want to get inside of it. i also need to invest in a rock tumbler.