Cada Día Mejor

Over the last few months a few refrains have flown into my head and gotten stuck there.

One in particular appeared out of nowhere after a particularly successful morning at the pool. And these days, when I talk about "successful" in terms of swimming in the morning, I don't mean how fast I swam, I mean how many conversations I succeeded in having.

The first time I remember chanting this refrain while dancing down the hallway to the locker rooms occurred sometime in the beginning of November. I'd gotten out of a very full pool that Wednesday morning. One guy who works at the pool, the one who waves to me when I come it and "Hasta Luego"s me as I leave, came up to me as I was walking off the pool deck.

"Disculpe. Hace mucho calor hoy. Hay mucho gente en la piscina," he said, apologizing for the cuantity of people in the pool that morning.

I brushed the problem off, "No pasa nada, estoy acustombrada a esta cantidad de gente." It's the truth, there were maybe six people in my lane that day, and it certainly wasn't the first time that I'd swum with so many people.

A few more lines were exchanged before the ritual hasta luegos and I left. In the locker room I ran into a woman with whom I'd swum with a little bit. She's a tiny old woman, dressed in a purple swim suit. The first time she talked to me it was to tell me she hoped that she wasn't bothering me--wondering if she'd been in my way while we were swimming.

This time she looked at me, laughing, and asked how many laps I swam everyday--a million? And from there the conversation continued--how many laps I actually swam (I didn't count), how often she swam at the pool, how long I'd been swimming.

It might seem silly. It probably is. But at the same time, I felt hugely accomplished after holding these conversations. I'd seen these people many times a week for the last two months, but as is the nature of swimming, it's sort of hard to talk to people in the middle of your workout.

After talking to these people, I practically danced and skipped my way through the locker room. Chanting quietly to myself, "¡Cada día mejor!"

This has happened a couple of other times, especially after conversations with this pool friends of mine. They also seem to come in waves. Some days I talk to everyone. Some days I don't talk to anyone.

It seems mostly to be based on luck. But it's in those moments that I am most happy that I did this because I can actually see what progress I've made. There have been times when I've questioned what it is exactly that I'm doing and what I wanted to do...but in the moments when that refrain floats through my mind, there aren't as many doubts.