Butterflies fluttered in my stomach as my dad put the car in reverse. The family sleek, blue Durango backed out of the driveway while my excitement grew. The anticipation of the seven day beach vacation we were about to endure got all four of us through the dreadful fourteen hour road trip. Nonetheless, we arrived at the grand house that awaited us at Surfside Beach, South Carolina. I opened the door leaving all of my luggage inside the car, before running into the tall, powder-blue home with all of my cousins. All of us girls squealed and jumped around while we explored every square inch of the rental. We looked behind every cabinet, corner, and curtain in sight. 

After taking a day to settle in, unpack, and destress, we started our week of relaxation. Everyone walked down to the beach which was just a few feet from the rental. We started setting up chairs and plenty of umbrellas, which were used as shields, to save our feet from the scorching hot ball of fire that beamed down on the sand below. Within minutes the entire family was splashing in the salty lukewarm water.

Carly dived under waves and floated over the ripples before turning to look back at the beach. She cuffed her hands over her mouth and shouted, ¨Come in the water with us, Madi, It's not cold.¨

I squinted my eyes in defense of the sun while screaming back at her, ¨Nah maybe later, Carly!¨ I wanted to have a fun time in the water, but since I was aware the ocean is home to thousands of creatures of all shapes and sizes, staying out of it was never a challenge. Instead, I decided to investigate the beach. I found ginormous shells, rocks, and plenty of sea glass to collect. The next morning it felt like a hundred degrees hotter than the day just a few hours prior. I walked along the shore, contemplating whether I wanted to go just a few steps deeper as I let the seafoam graze over my bare feet.

¨Grab a boogie board and go into the ocean!¨ My cousin Lexi hollered as she stood waist deep in the water. I took a deep breath and reached for a boogie board. At that moment, for a split second, my fear of the ocean was overridden by my desire to have fun. The sun blazed on my fair skin. I thought for a second I might spontaneously combust. The ocean seemed like the only option to avoid catching ablaze. I layed the board down vertically in front of me, lined my belly button up with the middle of the board, and began to paddle. Eventually I got to my cousin.

I dropped my arms to dangle off the sides of my board, then I took multiple deep breaths before turning to see just how far from shore we really were. Everyone yelling at the beach seemed like ants. I was way too far from the shore then I felt comfortable being, but I was committed. I was committed to swimming out into where the water was seemingly darker and colder; where my feet could no longer touch the sandy ocean floor. I had never been so far from shore in my entire life, but somehow the distance from reality at the shoreline was comforting. I spent hours with my cousin riding waves big and small as far as they would take us. We did not stop til our stomachs growled louder than the sound of the waves crashing. They truly sounded like awful whale impressions, which convinced us it was clearly time for a break. 

Each day after, my mom and aunt had to beg myself and my cousins to leave the water. When we finally agreed to part ways with the beach, it was not till our fingers and toes were  pruned, and our eyes bright red. On the second to last day of vacation, I continued spending time in the ocean as I had been doing each day prior. The knee deep water was calm and warm while we were relaxing, forming an imperfect circle in the water. We talked about how much fun our vacation was and all of the fun places we had been visiting and experiencing, when a small wave came brushing up against my back. It moved my body gently, raising my feet from the ground. Simultaneously, I received a striking shocking sensation around my right wrist.  

¨Ow!¨ My mouth opened letting out an excruciating whimper. My arm shook vigorously, working to set myself free from a malicious jellyfish. I felt the electrocution down in my toes when fear set in. The incident caused so much pain in just seconds. I felt everyone's eyes on me while I rushed out of the no good- two-faced ocean. 

Then my cousins cried concerning questions in unison: ¨Are you okay?¨, ¨What happened?¨

I failed to answer them as I continued fighting the ocean waves desperately trying to step onto dry land. All the anxiety I felt towards the immensity of the ocean came rushing back. It made each wave that crashed feel like a ton of bricks. I finally got my injured arm out of the water, which only made the pain significantly worse, as the coolness of the ocean faded. My wrist began to throb and burn as the hot sun hit it. That August sun had a vengeance. The realization of the incident did not fully hit me until I was completely off the beach, trying to hold my arm still under the freezing cold beach shower. 

My mom aggressively wiped my arm, working to disperse all of the poison from my sunburnt skin. I then remembered that my older sister had been stung, years ago, by a ruthless Portuguese man o'war jellyfish and the only thing that helped her was introducing urine to the injury. 

I began to whisper under my breath, “Please don't let them pee on me, please don't let them pee on me.” I could handle the humiliation of being stung by a measly jellyfish but having to be used as a personal urinal was not going to happen.

Eventually, I made it back to my beach chair, wobbling as I tried to keep my arm in a green bucket filled with the shower's cold water. After ungracefully sitting down, my focus shifted to all of the vacationers around me. All the families, including my own, were laughing and playing in the water while my sixteen-year-old self sat injured and frightened. My toes curled in the sand when the water in my bucket started to warm up, elongating the unbearable burning sensation I was experiencing. While my wrist formed bubbles and scars all I could think was, "Why did this happen to me?” The burning only increased as did my frustration, so I took ice cubes from the Coleman cooler and added them to my bucket. It did help relieve some of the pain, but did not help cool down my anger. That jellyfish caused our first fight and I was not sticking around to see what else it could have thrown my way. First a jellyfish sting and then what? I get taken away by a rip current or eaten by a shark? In the future, these pale freckled legs of mine will be planted firmly on land, or perhaps in a pool, with no jellyfish.