Have you ever noticed how when you are a little kid and go to the beach, you’re so excited to go and get in the water? You probably splash around in the ocean pretending you're a mermaid or some shit. As you get older you seem to move further and further out of the water, spending your preteen years collecting shells on the shoreline and taking pictures in the sand for your circa 2005 Myspace page. By your teen years only using the beach to tan and drink Four Lokos and Mikes Hard Lemonade with you friends. When you reach your early twenties you probably don't even make time for the beach anymore with the occasional trip to Lani Kai, but you're too drunk to remember if you ever even smelled the saltwater over the rum in your Mai Tai.
My wish for you this summer is to change that. Not change the fruity beach drinks. No. Change your inhibitions. Challenge your inhibitions. Be a kid again. Maybe the reason we Ariel-it-up like Triton is our father when we are kids at the beach is because we, as kids, are fearless. Fearless seven sea wanderers ready to doggy paddle away what little pain the playground has guilted us. As children we've yet to see how truly cruel the world can be and how painfully hard it us to know who you are versus whom you are expected to be. But you, my friend, you are inhibition-less, so let your tail-fin flap and go with the waves. As we get older we get scared and swim away and avoid saltwater because we don't want to be reminded of the catastrophes of life that cause salt water to stream down our faces.
But you. I wish the greatest wish that I can wish for you. Because you deserve it this summer. You deserve to let go. To be OK. To let the waves help crash you against the shoreline and break down your barriers, your inhibitions and the hurt you've endured the other unspectacular months of the year.
This summer, let your fear go. Let your inner child out. Dive head first into the sea because the gulf does not have no diving signs and neither should your soul. Soak up the salt and sand and sun. Keep seashells and your UV-rayed skin as reminders of your bravery to be inhibition-less. Grab the love of your life or even just your summer love and Danny and Sandy jump off the pier of your home town because you should really be hopelessly devoted to avoiding hopelessness. Wade with them and wade with string rays allowing their danger and potential to be innocuous surround you and do not be scared. Wait until after the blue flash of the sunset ignites the sky and use this flame to continue your journey of fearlessness into the long summer nights.
You are fearless. You are a mermaid. And most important -- you are a child of summer.
