My “Before”

Tuesday 28 July 2026

A quick one, because lights-out is 23:00 and nobody argues with it.

I said the evenings at camp would be mine. That was optimistic. Today, for my group: breakfast 7:45. Meeting point 8:15. Two hours in the 50-metre pool. Nutrition class at 11:30. Lunch. Activities. Second session 19:30 to 21:00. Dinner at quarter past nine. From breakfast to dinner that is more than thirteen hours, and nearly all of it is scheduled.

Yesterday there was a psychology class in the afternoon, and at half past nine at night a session with a breathing coach called Breathing under the stars, which sounds made up but was the best half hour of the day. We lay on the pool deck and learned to slow everything down. I almost fell asleep, which apparently was allowed.

The mapping — the reading plan I packed — is going slowly. Three evenings so far, maybe forty minutes total, mostly with my eyes closing on the same paragraph. I am not going to pretend otherwise. The plan said camp evenings, and the plan was wrong about camp evenings.

So, a smaller plan: finish the donor-conceived reading this weekend, once camp ends, and do the rest in the first week of August.

The swimming, for the record, is brilliant. Tired-brilliant.

The schedule, in case anyone thinks I am exaggerating:

— D.