Joshua Villareal
A Summer Day There is always a day in all of our privileged lives, where we begin to realize how meaningful family really is. Just like any other before it, the summer of 2003, was packed with days of beautiful sunny, baby blue skies, and a family of six, myself being the youngest, to call my own and enjoy it with them. At the time, I was very disobedient with my mom who seems to do everything at home for us while my dad was off working hard as an auto technician. I never seemed to really recognize how unappreciative and rude I was toward her since I thought she cared for my other siblings more than myself. On a random weekend night, my brother had come into the room which my sister and I shared having a smile on his face, and told us that my parents said to “pack some clothes and stuff because we’re going to go to Rosarito Beach”. Knowing this beach is in Mexico, we prepared for a distant overnight drive by also bringing pillows and small blankets to accommodate ourselves. My mom packed an ice chest with fresh foods and quick snacks in case we would get hungry and my brothers grabbed some brightly colored boogie boards that were stored in the garage. All this going on, I began to imagine the roaring waves sounding like lions as they crash onto the tide and ebb back into the sea to repeat it once again, then all the people that would be around smiling and having fun with their families with umbrellas over there sandy towels, and myself getting to enjoy it all. Not a moment too soon, we began our journey filled with sleep for every person besides my dad who is able to drive for hours at a time without any only needing a bottle of Coca-Cola to keep him up and intermittent comments such as “how far are we?”, made by whoever woke up. After a long drive which in reality felt short-lived because of the constant naps, everyone woke up with sounds of fast past paced cars and the warming morning, we were just a few streets away from our anticipated destination. Upon arriving my dad made a much needed stop for himself and any one else to use a restroom at nearby location and getting out of the vehicle with relief being able to stretch our bodies out erect, feeling the warm morning sun rays involuntarily wrap around me like a blanket. My brothers were ready to go now with towels and a boogie board they took off having to jump over a short brick wall separating the parking lot and the beach, they went to find a spot for everyone to lie as my sister and I followed after them while staying back, my parents unpacked the rest of the possessions. It was just what I had imagined and more feeling the warm soft sand between my toes as I ripped off my shoes, the bright yellow sun sitting just above the horizon causing the water to sparkle on every ripple the water made, though there was only few people since it had still been early. We had now settled on the beach we began our individual activities with building sand castles or finding sand crabs, my mom told me “If you go in, stay close where your dad and I can watch you, okay?”, as I replied “okay!”. Excited to go in the water, I ran toward the tide slowing down as I got closer expecting the water to feel ice cold but in reality feeling rather warm as my feet were now in. Making a split decision whether or not to I jumped in completely feeling a slight coldness come over me as my head popped out of the water to see my family frolicking on the beach sand and enjoying the day. I turned back around, positioning my body in a “dog-paddle” form as this was the only way I knew how to swim and began my move playing in the water for a while as my family was doing their own activities.
The waves began to calm for a short period of time thinking nothing really of it I saw myself getting farther from the shore. Getting tired I decided to head back paddling as fast as my scrawny arms could only to realize I wasn’t going anywhere but farther. Try anything I could out of the fear