Miscellany Monday ::: Beach Edition

Random, miscellany lessons learned over the course of 19 years vacationing at the beach; some weighty, some silly, all REAL TALK:

{1} I was three years~old when my family began taking our annual summer excursions to Topsail Island. I remember as a three year~old trying to comprehend my parents' descriptions of what the ocean would be like before we arrived. "Daddy helped Mommy in the water," I remember my mom saying. I could only picture a huge pool with my dad holding up my mom above the water.

When we finally arrived that first year, I immediately ran down to the beach and picked up the first seashell I encountered. I was drawn to it like a magnet. I remember one side was tan and porous, and the other side was smooth and purple. I carried the shell everywhere I went that week, and in typical three year~old fashion, I lost it.

Lesson #1: Follow what you're drawn to, be in tune with your passions, but don't hold on too tightly lest the tide of life change and suck your dream back to sea.

{2} The next year, a burglar stole some of our beach supplies off of our deck in the middle of the night. My Miss Piggy towel was stolen ~ I was devastated. My grandpa promptly went out and bought me a new beach towel, one with a duck wearing sunglasses...and sporting voluptuous bikini~clad women in the background.

Lesson #2: The Stealing Salty Seaweed Monster has an affinity for the pink muppet porcine.

Lesson #3: Grandpas try to be helpful, but overlook certain crucial details.

{3} Several years later {I was about 11}, my sister and I got caught in a riptide current. We were both very strong swimmers for our age and fearless in the water. My mom saw us from the shore when the current started pulling us outward; she later explained that each wave would bring us closer in towards shore just a bit, but after the wave would pass, we would be sucked backwards about four times as much!! In addition to this enormously strong current pulling us out to sea, the water was well over our heads so we couldn’t use the ocean floor as emergency leverage. Being a private beach, there were no lifeguards.

*Luckily*, there was a lifeguard vacationing in the beach house next to ours ~ she helped my dad pull us out of the water. I don’t know how long it took to retrieve us, but they both collapsed on the sand when we reached the shore, demonstrating their extreme exhaustion.

Lesson #4: "Coincidences" may not be coincidences after all.

Lesson #5: Surviving a near death experience may be an indication that there's unfinished business, a purpose yet to be fulfilled.

{4} The summer of 2003 brought my official introduction to reality TV with NBC's For Love or Money. Immediately, my favorite contestant was Paige Jones, and I cheered for her the entire season. Paige made it to the finale episode, which aired the week we were at the beach. Rob chose the other woman, and I CRIED!!!

Lesson #6: Don't become emotionally involved with or attached to reality show characters. You can always become friends with them later in life ~ on facebook. Which I did.

{5} A couple years ago I suffered a wipeout while swimming in the ocean, which caused me to lose my prescription sunglasses to the sea. I thought I would never be able to see clearly at the beach ever again {my vision is about 20/400} because I couldn’t risk losing my contacts. However, after I switched to dailies {contacts that I change everyday}, I was ecstatic to be able to once again see individual shells in detail and enjoy each ripple and bubble in the water!

Lesson #7: Don't lose heart when things go wrong; new and better options may be coming your way, options capable of enhancing your "vision."