Well, hello there fellow mers! My name is Mermaid Astra, and I have been lurking for almost a year now... I have very bad social anxiety and have been terrified of finally posting my introduction on here due to rejection I guess lol? So here I am to share how I found my fins.
First and foremost I am a mer-mom. I have a wonderful littler mer of the age of 3! A year ago she was 2 and I was taking her to a local meet and greet of two mers where I live in Washington. While waiting in line, I was talking with my husband about how swimming in a tail must be a great work out and having been a good swimmer in my high school days that I thought it would be fun to try it out (mostly as an athletic thing)
And wouldn't you know it? The woman behind me in line laughed out loud at me and said to her friend, "She's too fat to be a mermaid, more like a whale."
The song "dont believe me just watch." Went through my head then and every day since. My husband bought me my first monofin for our anniversary two weeks later. Between child care and normal houshold expenses (plus buying a car) we did not have any money for a new professional fabric tail much less a silicone one.
I made friends with rhe one local mer who I will not mention due to some personal issues we had (such as extreme elitism on her part, telling me I could not be professional or make any name without having a silicone) and I began some training. I did mass amounts of research, joined mernetwork, and started to handsew my first tail!
I pushed myself much more than my mer trainer did lol. I swam 3 times a week for 2.5 hours a day and started running 4 miles every other day. I have lost 30 lbs in the last 6 months and toned down a bit. I never realized how cathartic it was just to get away from problems and just swim.
Our local pool closed down last year in November after I had finally gotten the hang of it all and was able to do lots of tricks and able to hold my breath for 1.5 lengths of our olympic sized pool while using the 10 lbs diving brick held! I was disappointed to say the least since we live on an island and had no way to swim in the colder months and the closest pool was almost 45 minutes away. Needless to say we didnt have the money for me to be driving there 3 times a week so it dwindled to 3 times a month.
I have not let this disappoint me too much however and have instead turned to crafting my own crowns and wants, resin pieces and mermaid themed soaps and bath salts.
My experience has been rewarding and fun and I've been able to talk more with other mers and have decided to slowly come out of my shell as it were. So that's it guys and thanks for reading if ya stuck with me and my long post.
@mermaid_astra on IG
Sent from my [device_name] using MerNetwork mobile app
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Originally Posted by Mermaid_Rain
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