Cydney Merritt

Place of Bliss

The beach is my favorite place...it sounds cliché, I know. Every summer I drive six hours to the same place every time; Coronado, California. The beaches are nicer, air is fresher, and the people are kinder. There are three main reasons I go to the beach; the ocean, state of peace, and the little moments. These three key components make up a memorable beach experience.

I love being near the water. I was born on Oahu, an island surrounded by water. The entire tropical atmosphere is the one thing that feels like home. When I’m at the beach, my whole mindset changes. My way of life is different. My mind is clear. At the beach, I find myself to be a different person. The smell of the salty air calms me. It gives me a sort of “high”. The sand, although obnoxious at times, feels natural between my toes and under my feet. My lips feel raw and numb after being in the water for hours. Swimming in the ocean is ten times better than swimming in any pool or lake. It’s salty, cool, and crisp. The first time I dive in feels like a thousand needles puncturing my skin at once. Then the cool sensation takes away the crisp painful feeling and I feel relaxed, calm, and totally numb to everything going on around me. While I’m looking up at the sky or out into the wide, blue abyss in front of me, I fall asleep. This is my state of peace. I close my eyes. The waves swiftly rock me back and forth, side to side...I’m dreaming. I have to be.

After I’ve spent hours and hours in the water, I stretch out along the warm sand and let the sun soak up the cool droplets of saltwater that bead up on my skin. I always bring my favorite book, The Summer I Turned Pretty. I can never come to the beach without it. Sitting on my colorful beach towel, my back against my beach bag, I read for hours and hours. Soaking up the UV rays, I cling to every word I read as if I were drowning and the words were air.

Life is made up of little moments. For instance; you lose yourself in your favorite book, you spend so much time in the ocean that when you try to walk on land your legs are like noodles, or no matter how hard you try you always get sand stuck in places it shouldn’t be. These little moments are meaningful to me because there isn’t a single place in the world that makes me feel as blissful as the beach. There’s no logical answer for why I love the beach, or the silly little things about it that I enjoy. The beach gives me clarity, safety, and the warm feeling that I belong there. I carry this place with me wherever I go, in my thoughts, the books I read and in my dreams. The thought of it keeps me sane, calm and happy. Just knowing that, one day soon, I’ll be back where I belong.