How to Earn Your Life #PlanetOrPlastic

How to Earn Your Life

Clear, cool water engulfed Mira as she took a deep breath and sank below the soft waves. The calm, ensuring silence once more surrounded her. Her lemon goggles granted her vision as she swam further down with the trashnet in a steady grip. Already, she had found several plastic bags and packages to put in it. But she was nowhere near done. A weight fell on her shoulders and she had to break the surface for air.

What difference do I make? she asked herself, staring out towards the horizon. When first she had begun collecting plastic from the ocean it had seemed so meaningful. But every time she returned there were more to pick. It never ended.

I should be able to do more... Mira inhaled and turned to face the clear blue sky, laying on her back. I've been given all possible advantages in life; health, education and a safe childhood. And what have I done to deserve any of it? A tear rolled down her wet cheek. I have the rest of my life to earn it though, she reminded herself. And I will. 

She couldn't do everything, but she would do something.

As Mira swam back down, she noticed a group of semitransparent objects rhythmically swaying in the current some meters ahead. Most would have taken it for a shoal of jellyfish, but she knew better. As she came closer, individual bags distinguished themselves. The quiet amongst the plastic was neither calm nor ensuring. Tense, it pressed up against her from all sides and made her heart race. She knew she couldn't possibly pick it all. But she could pick that bag and that frayed net and that deflated balloon.

When Mira broke the surface for air she was surrounded by straws, bottles, wrappers, and fragments she had yet to collect. Determinately she swam back down. A shadow swept past underneath her. She turned to face it. A stingray elegantly flew away over the sand, sweeping its flat, dark fins like an eagle would flap its wings. From near its eye trailed a transparent string. To get a better look, she swam down to the stingray's side, conscious of its poisonous stinger.

Poor thing, Mira thought. It had a piece of plastic stuck in one of its spiracle openings. With it there, breathing must be incredibly painful.

After a quick breath from above Mira returned to the stingray. The pounding of her heart echoed in her skull. She reached out towards the plastic but had to draw back when the stingray swirled around with its stinger ready. Before it could swim away, she reached out once more and grabbed the plastic. The stingray was gone in a heartbeat, leaving a cloud of sand.

Later, Mira walked home over the warm beach with the trashnet over her shoulder. Its weight sunk her deep down in the sand, yet it had been long since she'd felt so light. Perhaps I will earn my life after all...