In English class, we wrote memoirs and I chose my topic because it was the first time I had ever been in the ocean.  This  experience infulanced me because I saw all kinds of people and things. I think what the reader can learn from my memoir is that you realize how lucky and privileged you are. Here is my memoir.

                                        My First Time In The Ocean: A Memoire

By Yossi Read

 

In the Winter of 2017, I had an experience that changed my life forever. 

 

The first time I stepped into the ocean was in Mexico with my family, and as I felt the ocean saltwater and warm sand beneath my feet for the first time, my first thought was “wow, I never want to leave this place!” Then I saw the shops on the beach, there was all kinds of stuff, some shops were selling shells or souvenirs, others sold fresh coconuts with the top cut off and cold coconut water spilling over the edges and flowing down the sides.  As soon as I saw the coconuts I wanted one and my mom agreed, she said “sure why not” and so we got some, it was delicious. I tasted the sweet cool water on my tongue, the sun warming my face and, hearing my cousins (Sunny and Izaya) playing in the ocean with my sister. My mom asked if she could take a drink, so I handed it to her and went into the ocean with my cousins. 

 

At first, the water was freezing and I jumped out, then my mom went in and I knew I could too, so I dunked myself under and almost screamed! I had thought it was cold before but this was worse. I pushed myself up to the surface, smelled the salt on the wind, and all of a sudden the water wasn’t cold. It was warm, I didn’t know how, but it felt great.  As I dove back into the ocean I felt a sense of freedom that I hadn’t felt before, it was like a feeling of relief. I came back up into a mouthful of water. It was refreshing. I looked around just in time to see my cousin Sunny jumping at me out of the water. He came down and landed right on top of me! I pushed him off and threw him into the water headfirst, he came up sputtering for air. I went over to help him up and our whole family got out of the ocean to dry off, we walked onto the beach and laid down on the warm sand. 

 

There, we all started talking about all different things, so I got up and walked down a little farther, so I was right at the ocean’s edge. Just as I was getting comfortable a huge wave came down and drenched me, I was soaked! My aunt saw me and started laughing, all of a sudden I was laughing too, not because I was wet but because I had just dried off, and now I had to dry off again. I decided that since I was already wet I might as well go for another swim, I tried to convince my cousins to come in with me but they didn’t want to. So, I resorted to getting them wet, I filled the empty coconut with water and dumped it over them, and my sister. They were mad, they pushed me into the water and kept dumping water on me, eventually, they stopped and went for a swim. I joined them and then got out of the water again. 

 

As we were heading back to our house we stopped to get some fish from the store, but just as we were about to go in, my mom spotted an iguana. It was just sitting there on someone’s fence, staring back at us, doing nothing. As we went into the fish store it scuttled away, we entered the store to a strong smell of fish, we went over to the person at the counter and bought some fish. Once we got back home we had dinner and took a walk on the beach, and found some interesting things, turtle eggs, dead fish, and loads of different shells. 

 

As I went to pick up a nice-looking shell, an octopus fell out! But this octopus was just a baby and transparent too, it was super weird looking, kind of like an alien. We had never seen anything like it before, so we picked it up in a shell and placed it in the water. As we continued walking along the shore it started to rain, at first, it started to drizzle, then it became a steady rain and began pouring. We ran inside and looked out the window to watch the rain beat down on the ocean water. The wind was roaring and beating down the ocean waves, we had a great time but eventually got tired and had dinner, which consisted of the fish we had bought earlier, rice, and pancakes. It was really good, after that we started packing for tomorrow’s flight home. 

 

I had a horrible night, I couldn’t go to sleep and kept waking up in the middle of the night, finally, I went to sleep. We woke up at five o’clock, so we would get to the airport early and find our plane and seats. We got on the plane and fell asleep, I woke up a few hours later feeling sick. Eliya, my sister, was already awake, we got off the plane and into a cab, and as I fell asleep I thought about all the great things that I had done. I realized how much I was going to miss the ocean, how much I wanted to be there, watching the waves crash, the wind blow, the creatures on the sand. It’s hard to find something you love so much and have to leave it behind.