Since I was a child, I’ve always found myself by the water. This was because my family has primarily lived on the water in various places throughout my life. Over the years, I’ve grown to love the water and not fear what’s in the water. I feel a sense of protectiveness over it and am now studying different ways to do that. Being by the water, listening to the waves, and smelling the salty air, is the only place I truly feel at peace and relaxed.
When I was in the early years of elementary school, my grandparents had a house on St. John, an island in the US Virgin Islands. They loved to sail and spent the cold months down south, and often invited us to stay. We would do a lot of snorkeling and sailing, and saw so many of the beautiful, vibrant fish. We’d see sharks, shipwrecks, coral, dolphins, and more. Days were spent on the boat in the sun or in the water. My dad would dive for sand dollars to give to me (which always broke on the flights home). Simultaneously, those same grandparents had a house in New Hampshire, which they’d stay at during the summers. This house was on Lake Winnipesaukee, and they had a boat and kayaks. At around three or four years old, my grandma had taken me kayaking on that lake for the very first time. We’d spend our mornings floating around the lake. These were the good days.
When I was entering the third grade, my family was stationed in San Diego, California. My dad was in the military, so we were moving around a lot. We lived pretty close to the coastline, and would go to the beaches often. We weren’t the kind of family to go to a crowded beach with hundreds of people, but we would go to less populated dog beaches and bring our golden retriever. Don’t be fooled though, he rarely went in the water and never actually retrieved, but my brother and I would play in the waves, and my parents would walk along the beach, hand in hand. Our beach days always felt so special.
Only a few years later, we were stationed somewhere else on the coast: sunny Florida! We moved to Tampa, where we lived for about four years. I was in my preteens and early teens when I lived there, and my friend and I would take beach trips or crowd the neighborhood pools on the hot, humid days. As we know, Florida is hot and quite humid. It’s swimming weather. We spent many of our days in the water. During my years in Florida, we took a few trips. My grandparents, who I mentioned before, invited my brother and I, as well as our cousins, to a week-long vacation back to the Caribbean to sail the waters. I was once again reconnected with the waters I first fell in love with. A couple years after that, we were invited to a trip sailing the Bahamas. My love for the water only continued to increase.
We left Florida when my dad retired and moved to New Hampshire. There, I was over an hour away from the beach, and the trips became less and less frequent. I took one trip back to Florida to visit my best friend, but that was it. I left for college at Michigan State University, and once again, I’m still quite far. This past spring break, however, I took a friend with me and visited my grandparents in Florida. It was nice to be back and see the water at sunset and hear the lapping waves. I missed being able to swim in the ocean in late February. I missed the soft breeze whilst walking along the shoreline. It reminded me of the internal peace that I’d forgotten in the midst of handling all of my stress.
I want to work on teams that work to help enact policies to combat climate change, and I specifically want to focus on the oceans. Our oceans are so important, and they’re beginning to die. The last time I snorkeled in the warm waters of the South, I noticed that the coral was mostly dead. It was heartbreaking to see. While individual actions cannot fight the effects of climate change, which is a conversation for another time, there are still important measures we can take to ensure we’re respecting and protecting our oceans while on luxurious vacations. Some measures include, but aren’t limited to:
- Reef-safe sunscreens
- Prohibiting yourself and those around you to NOT touch coral
- Avoid single-use plastic
- Carry reusable water bottles
- Clean up litter you see in or nearby the water
I know not everybody loves the water or feels drawn to it in any kind of way, but I think we can all understand and agree that it’s beautiful and important. I’ve always wanted to be around the water, and I hope I can have the opportunity when I’m older to live close. Whether it’s the water itself, or the memories associated with it, I will always feel okay when I’m breathing in the salty air.