As someone who has started taking cold showers, I love this! A man has been jumping into Lake Michigan the last few months to curb his pandemic stress:
It was a Saturday and O’Conor had been stressed since coronavirus first hit Chicago hard in March. Every day, the news had updates on a pandemic with seemingly no end in sight and there was social unrest across the country after police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Plus, he was hungover.
O’Conor rode his bike to the lake, locked it up and walked along the wall facing Lake Michigan near Montrose Harbor. On a whim, he dove in.
It was the start of a daily pandemic plunge that’s now lasted five months.
“It was so enjoyable. I just kept doing it,” O’Conor said. “Going down there every day and having some peace of mind when I jumped in. It’s almost meditative.”
As of Tuesday, O’Conor has jumped into Lake Michigan from the wall at Montrose Harbor for 157 straight days. He’s been documenting his trips to the lake on Twitter for weeks.
“I didn’t have a goal in mind when I started this. It’s just something fun I’ve been doing. Sometimes I’ve had my kids go with me,” O’Conor said.
O’Conor is an artist who lives in Lincoln Square and runs a clothing company called Dtox Designs. He’s lost business during the pandemic, in part because he’s been a vendor for six years at summer music festivals like Lollapalooza.
Dan has been documenting everything on his social media. Take a look below! What have you been doing to deal with your stress the last few months??