funny that since ~sophomore year there has always been a pair of swimming earbuds in my shopping cart that i’ve never checked out. at first i couldn’t afford one and the selection was narrow. now i can and there are plenty, but i’ve come to paying exactly for the mandatory void of input (and the resulting whim) in the pool and hesitate to trade it for 1h of podcasts (which i can’t easily skip forward underwater if one turns out to be boring) or music (which i can and do sing in my head anyway)