Open Water--Jessica

The year was 2015. I was in my happy place, my home away from home...Costa Rica. Our yearly trips were undefeated and who knew how unforgettable this trip would be. I wake up one morning to the sound of the birds chirping when my mom yells “apurate ya nos vamos para la playa,” we were headed to the beach! I got ready so fast that I was running out the door almost forgetting my beach towel. We arrived, Playa Blanca, I stepped out of the car and the first thing that hit me was the fresh sea breeze with the sound of the waves crashing down. The excitement caused me to drop everything running to the ocean ready to jump in. I immediately stopped in my tracks...all I see is a bright red flag after flag along the beach. Confused, the lifeguard had approached me with girls on either side of him informing me that there was a high tide and it is dangerous to enter the water. My feet sunk into the sand, I couldn’t believe I couldn’t swim in the crystal clear water that had me so content. My tia saw this written all over my face and asked me, “Can you swim?” I reply with “Yes” then she proceeds to say “Let's go as long as you wear some water shoes so your feet don’t get cut by the coral reefs.” I agreed. Thrilled that I was able to go in the ocean I jumped up ready to head straight for the sea. My tia, 2 older cousins, and I head down to the shore feeling the warm water touch my toes with a big grin following. We had been deep enough where most of our bodies were underwater while still being able to touch the ocean floor. Wave after wave had come and I was having the time of my life being able to dive under and jump over each wave with my family. We had been in the middle of a conversation when my cousin had noticed a massive wave coming our way, all of us right away submerged under the water holding my breath and only feeling the pressure of the wave crashing over me. I pushed myself back up to get above the surface and immediately noticed that my feet no longer touched the ocean floor, but was still able to keep my head above

water without an issue. My tia saw the struggle and asked “Jessica are you touching the floor?” I respond with “no,” my cousin looks at my tia concerned and says, “let's head in closer to shore.” At this moment an unsettling feeling about the ocean overcame me. There was one big wave after another, and no matter how hard we tried to swim back to shore it seemed as if we hadn’t moved at all. The rip current had a hold of us and the only way out was if we swam parallel to the shore to get out of the flow, but the water shoes caused the water to pull me back even more than the others. In this instant, my cousin started to help me by pushing me closer to shore while my tia yelled for help from my cousin Kevin who was on shore taking pictures of shells. Kevin finally turned around only to think we were just waving to say hi so he proceeds to wave back, turn around and take more pictures of shells. With every push, I could feel my cousin becoming weaker and him having to swim for himself. While the rest of my family were in a deep sleep my Tio had decided to take one look up before going to take a nap and had noticed that we were crying for help. While the lifeguard had still been flirting with the girls from earlier my Tio yelled at him, “My family is out there needing help and you're here flirting.” The lifeguard annoyed starts slowly making his way down the beach to help us. Clueless to what was happening onshore I had been taking the deepest breath my lungs could hold and did like Dory once said and just kept swimming. I could feel my body slowly become more worn out with each breath of air I came up for but with this, I could see the lifeguard and Tio come closer and closer. I had gone under the water one last time knowing that when I went back up for air that would be the last time, I was ready to let the ocean win. I went up to take my final breath and this is when the lifeguard and my Tio had been there with the buoy ready for me, I had latched on to it so quickly I hadn’t even blinked. We made it safely back onto the shore explaining to my family what had happened still shaking from the events that had just occurred. Although I still

swim in the ocean freely and am not afraid of it, this day I learned one valuable lesson that has stuck with me since then, do not ignore the red flags.