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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
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Anna Sublet

Swimming in the ocean I am alone and embraced by risk and trust

Ocean
Aerial view of three people swimming in the ocean
‘I can now inhabit that golden world which transfixed me one early morning some years ago’. Anna Sublet (left) swimming in the ocean. Photograph: Jerry Vochteloo/Jerry Votcheloo

On my morning walks, I used to look at the older, pink-capped women swimming in the ocean and project myself decades into my future.

“One day I’ll be a mermaid,” I hoped, as I watched the Morning Mermaids swimming group in the golden light. “I’ll live near the sea, and throw myself into it. I’ll leave behind my self-conscious shame, I’ll be me, I’ll be at one with the watery world.” Coming from a non-swimmer, this was quite the fantasy.

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