Ohio Shark

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Ohio Shark

By: Kayla Wigley

As I lay floating flat on my back, I breathed in the salt water. Eyes shut tight, from the Sun’s bright rays. I loved the way the warmth felt against my skin. I felt almost reluctant to even step into the water just minutes before. For an hour after arriving to the beach, I just sat sitting in the sand, pondering the winter before, and thinking about all that had occurred not to long before. Like the Ohio snow, I sat in the brown granules sinking my hands in feet deeper into its bed, unthawing, heart and mind somberly.

When I had finally decided to walk towards the water, I couldn’t help but remember my dad back at the house eagerly saying, “Careful Stella.” It’s been forecasted that sharks have been spotted all week near shore. My family had flown out to our beach house for the Summer from Ohio to spend some time together after a long engagement and wedding for my dad and new step mom whom I couldn’t be less thrilled about, let alone spending the Summer with. So, a few hours after landing I decided to escape unpacking and the annoying surface chatter to bask in my own thoughts. This was my way of decompressing.

The water was all but perfect. The small waves gently crashed up against my feet and the wind felt like a sweet song being sung and swept over me. I could finally exhale, and as I slowly waded into the water to a spot that felt good, I began to feel a new energy, and the ocean even at bay felt like the end of my skirt, and the beginning of a new story.

The clouds began to shift and I was able to open my eyes enough to glance at blue sky. I motioned my hands up and down like I did in Ohio when I made snow angels. A lot more fluid, I cracked a smile. The reality of being alone felt far from lonely. My family dynamic was forever changed, and I hadn’t had very much time to myself to just think, or comfortable enough to part an authentic smile without compromising my true feelings.

Before I knew it, I had been in the water for at least thirty minutes floating and very relaxed. When I turned upward to see where I was, I gasped a little, because I had floated farther than I had realized. When I prepared to swim back closer to shore, I abruptly stopped. A gray fin approached my vicinity and I gulped. I had reluctantly ignored my dad urging me to be careful going out into the water. So eager to escape, I had no clue that I would float into the gate of a shark.

I knew in that moment, despite my fear that if I panicked, I would cause an upset reaction from the shark. All that I could think to do was to go back into my original state. I slowly lifted my feet at the same pace the shark moved. I positioned myself back into floating, but I did not force movement. I breathed calmly and slowly, allowing my shoulders to relax. I peered intensely at the blue sky as I sometimes stared at the ceiling in my bedroom. As I lay on the bed of the ocean, I felt a cool breeze sweep over me again. It was the same wind I felt before entering the water, accept this time, everything became still. The water became still, the clouds cleared before me, and all that moved was the grey shark, and the pumping of my chest. I breathed in and out, in and out, slowly, and sure.

The shark circled around me approximately three times at a very strategic pace. It was assertive but not forceful, maintaining enough distance away for me to see a break in the water as it swam. I didn’t know exactly how to respond, and at the same time I was trying to process all that was happening.

Finally, after the third spin, the shark broke its pattern and swam away. Dumbfounded, I began to make my way quickly back to shore. When I finally touched the sand, I just plopped onto it shocked and amazed that I made it out of the water alive and without a scratch. By this time, I saw my family making their way down the hill waving and calling my name. I had been at the beach for about two and a half hours so they were probably coming to join me.

In that moment, seeing my family walk down the hill, coming towards me. I knew that everything about my world was changing. The normality of my life was no more. I didn’t know what the future held; I gained a new strength. Maybe the shark found me for that very reason. To steady me, and pass the torch of the strength that was already inside of me. It didn’t really matter anymore what I felt like I was lacking because confidence gave me a new hope and affirmation to be strong, to be sure of myself, and to carry that back with me to Ohio after this Summer ended.

I may not ever share this experience with my family. Perhaps this defining moment was just for me. As my family approached me, I met them with a smile. The shark in me had come alive.