When we saw the grey skies approaching the only brave ones that wanted to go were  my cousin Ella, my brother Michael, my dad and me. The other 17 stayed at the rental house. It was a nice day in Martha’s Vineyard until about 2:15. We lived 0.3 miles away from our favorite beach, South beach. As we hopped onto our bikes the rain started to drizzle down getting our towels wet with rain water, not ocean water. Right as we got to the beach we jumped off our bikes and ran up the used to be hot sand which is now dark and wet. My feet sank into the memory foam sand making it harder to walk up every time. My thighs started to burn, and my legs felt like they were on fire. I could hear the waves roaring and smell the sulfur without even seeing the ocean. We finally reached the top and we all stopped. No one, nothing, or anything was at the beach but us. It felt like nothing mattered but that moment. A shiver went up my body when the cold breeze hit my tan skin. The sand was freshly covered with footsteps of strangers that had walked here earlier, but were no longer there, only their footsteps. The sky was a light grey getting darker the closer you got to the horizon. Finally the ocean, the water was a dark navy blue with white foam at the tips of the wave disappearing when it smashed to the sand.

I stood there in silence not knowing what to do or say. Michael darted across the beach towards the ocean and my dad followed. Ella and I were still standing there. My stomach was clenched looking at the size of the waves. The waves have always been really big in Martha’s Vineyard, but this was nothing I’ve ever seen for all of the 12 years I’ve been going. These waves were 5 plus feet taller than my dad and my dad is 6’1. Step by step, I made my way to the ocean, Ella following. Ella and I have never been scared of the ocean but I have never seen us so hesitant in our lives. My body was still and my fist were clenched. My heart was beating faster the more I thought about going in the ocean. Watching my brother get destroyed by the waves scared me, but made me want to go in more.

My dad’s face was tense and looked scared for us. Ella and I finally got up the courage to go in. We held hands and waited for the perfect moment. We ran and dove into the surprisingly warm water. The current was so strong I felt us getting pulled out a little bit at a time. My dad’s arms were constantly in the air telling us to come in closer to shore. Whenever my eyes caught a wave coming my way, butterflies would shoot up into my stomach. I got up from the last wave and the butterflies fell back down, but when I looked up it wasn’t the choppy ocean, it was a wall of navy blue bubbly water. My head peered up as far as it could go. My body started to tremble. I have never seen a bigger wave. I saw the white foam starting to form and the curl of the wave form. My body finally came back to life and I dove as far as I could under the wave. My eyes were squeezed so tight my eyeballs started to ache. The strength from the wave was so strong it dragged not only my foot up but my whole body. I spun in the wave like I was in a washing machine.

When I finally got released from the strength of the wave the tightness in my body was gone, the fear on my face was gone and the pale tint to my skin was gone. A smile appeared on my face and a laugh came out of my mouth and I couldn’t stop it. We all cried with laughter and joy.  Soon I eventually forgot about the fear and just let loose and enjoyed the moment. The hardest part was getting out. The ocean had it’s strong arms around us and wouldn’t let us go. My dad had to come in and grab all of us. We all fell to the sand laughing and just soaking up everything that had happened. We forgot about the fear, the burning sensation in our legs, and the pain in our stomach from laughing so hard.

All that mattered was what was happening right then and there.