My friend Hayley who plays with me in my Dungeons and Dragons campaign, A D8 With Fate (check it out here), among other things, is a professional mermaid. Did you know that mermaid could be a job? Basically think kids' birthdays, photo sessions to live out your childhood dream, and even water safety awareness. She got into it last year when she had a lot of extra time on her hands to research, thanks to a covid case.
This summer, she gave me one private lesson, which led to another with a group of friends and coworkers, and hey presto, I'm a PADI certified mermaid (this is a real thing). I sewed my own tail (but the ankle part is too tight of all things, and I still need to fix that as of 9/1/24), got the monofin (mine's from FinFun, and I'm already thinking of upgrading), and me and another friend have practiced throughout the summer. When I told my mom, her first reaction was a wary "...why?" My response was, for fun! It's just another way to swim.
There's a whole industry around mermaiding, from the tails of different fabrics, to tails with pearls sewn in, to full silicone tails that are beautiful but extremely expensive and difficult to get into. There's apparently rules in "the community" about not stealing someone else's colors or name ("mersona").... although I'm just here to have fun with my friends. I'm not trying to be an influencer, and those kind of rules sound really dumb to me, like people taking it wayyy too seriously. There's lots of different monofins and more.
Going back to my mom's question, the real answer is "why not?" I might have scoffed at it too once, the idea of people pretending to be mermaids for fun. I've always loved swimming, and sometimes swimming gets boring too, so why not have something to do while doing it, that something being practicing your mermaid swim? Or when gathered with friends, doing fun mermaid handshakes, ogling over tail designs, rather than just standing in the pool or lazing on floaties with drinks?
Mermaiding seems like this fits hand in glove with acting; you're taking on another identity and just enjoying being that person. The mersona I came up with is Scisras, which comes from Shakespeare's "sea-change into something rich and strange" from The Tempest. I made a dragon-like tail, inspired by the weedy and leafy sea dragons I love to see at aquariums. I envision a long-sleeved shirt to go over my wetsuit to complete the dragon look, so I can mermaid in the ocean (the Pacific is just so cold compared to the Atlantic, at least in Florida where I grew up - I don't know how to surf but got a wetsuit just to swim).
Plus people always say to have other hobbies outside of voiceover, so when things aren't going well (as is the case right now, though at least I'm getting into cold emailing, this content marketing, and more auditions again after a few years), you have stuff to keep you happy. If you put all your worth on one thing, when that thing is not doing you any good turns, then you're just miserable. I put value in my friends above all else (besides myself and family), so spending time with them when I could be auditioning is my jam.
Yes, I could do tens of voiceover auditions each day, but with work, my long commute home, wanting to get other things done at night (like an embroidery I've worked on for a year) or see friends, and valuing sleep... then I can only do so many auditions a day. I set a minimum of five, but again, if I'm not home til 10:45pm because my work went til 6:30 and I went to improv class from 7-10... what would you do? Do auditions, rushing through them to complete the number 5 just so you can get to bed, or just not do them because you're not in the space to make them sound good?
Anyway, I digress from the mermaid topic. Summer 2024 has been a great one. Besides becoming a mermaid, I went to Catalina Island for the first time for the 4th of July, I saw a lot of plays (wrote about She a few weeks ago), I went to Monterey's aquarium and 17-Mile Drive, and more. Do something silly and fun like mermaiding, if you can, relive your childhood of just doing low stress things with friends, and I will write to you next week.
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