Childhood fears

As a child I was terrified of the ocean, though it confuses me since I had a strong passion about sharks, I still do to this day. Though I never thought of any reason why. The only thing that comes to my mind was the Florida accident.

It was the day before we had taken our trip, I sat in my grandmothers art studio watching shark videos on her laptop in her lap, I was just seven back then. I recall telling her I wanted to see a shark in the wild, which was perfect since we were going to Florida. That was until we came across an uncensored shark attack video.

I wasn't terrified of the fact a shark had done it, more terrified that it could happen. My mother wasn't happy about that factor, she had to tell me that I wasn't going to be anywhere near where that could happen. I had been paranoid during the start of our drive, though that quickly changed once I went into Disney.

My mother thought to end the trip she'd take me and my brother to a beach, just to look for sharks teeth or seashells. She had warned us about the waves due to the storm that had just passed. I had gone off near the water stupidly, it felt like it was swallowing me in. Like I couldn't move, I was frozen in place with fear. Thinking about what lurked in the water, I thought in the moment of my panic I saw a fin. It was just a bit of trash, it looked like a fin, well not really but I was scared.

I did overcome my fear the second time we went to Florida, my brother had gotten into surfing which I heavily wanted to try. So I mustered up the courage to very much fail at surfing, though I did enjoy my time I shared with my brother during it. It seems like the only good memory I have.