The scent of the salty ocean air hits you as you cross the drawbridge, you are now officially on vacation. Every year my family and I travel to the New England coast. From Massachusetts to New Hampshire and Maine, the sense of family and good times are always present. All of the cousins, sisters, and brothers gather in the same spot once a year. My mother and her siblings grew up going to New England; it was their second home.

We always rent the same house in New Hampshire. It’s a big white house with a nice yard in the back and a giant sunroom that takes up the top half of the house. This house is just across the street from the beach, making it a quick walk. When we first arrive all of the children are running around claiming their rooms while the adults are unpacking the car. It is complete chaos. The excitement overtakes you. In this moment you feel the happiest that you have ever been. Once everything is unpacked, and has a place, all you can hear is the family talking and laughing. As night falls and everyone is going to bed you are unable to fall asleep because of the excitement. All you can think about is tomorrow and finally being able to touch the ocean and feel the sand after a year of being deprived of its beauty.

The next day arrives and you wake to the light shining through the window. You go downstairs and hear the sizzle of bacon and pancakes cooking. Once the whole family is up and has eaten you start getting ready for the beach. Bags are being packed, sunscreen is being applied, and lunches are being made. The anticipation is killing you.

Everyone walks out the door and is making their way down the sidewalk. Just across the street is what you’ve been waiting for all year long. The seagulls cawing and the waves crashing on the shoreline bring you back to all the years before. These are the sounds that make you feel complete and utter happiness.

You finally make it to the beach and begin walking down the stairs. You take your shoes off and for the first time in a year you feel the rough sand against your feet. You start walking down towards the water and as you walk you realize how hot your feet are getting. If you don’t begin walking faster you feel as if the bottoms of your feet are going to burn. Once you make it to your spot on the beach you drop everything and run to the water. Dodging people left and right just trying to get down there. You finally make it to the ocean and stick your feet in. Your first reaction is complete shock, although it’s always the same. No matter how many times you have felt that water nothing will prepare you for how cold it actually is. The ocean is like an ice bath, it’s freezing in the beginning but once you’ve been in for a couple minutes you begin to go numb and it actually feels warm. After feeling the water you return back to your chairs and sit with your family while the sun warms you.

Although this vacation is going exactly as the years before have, you sense a discrepancy. As you are sitting in your beach chair you begin to think. All the years before you have been so wrapped up in all of the excitement that you’ve never noticed this one fact. Once you get to the beach, all of your worries and stresses seem to melt away like a popsicle in July. This awareness calms you. You feel like any worry that you might have or had before coming on vacation will not even matter. From now on whenever you come to the beach you will not be wrapped up in all of the excitement, but rather wrapped up in the calmness and stress free environment that is the beach.