Emily+Cubelo

<> ** Skim Boarding at the OuterBanks!!!! ** My family and I were on our way to the best vacation ever. We all planned out outfits and packed in the night before leaving. When my mom got home from work we loaded up the car and finally got on the road at 5 pm on Friday night. We anticipated that we would drive the first 4 and half hours and then look for a place to rest. About 3 hours into our drive, it started to rain heavily and we weren’t sure that we should continue to drive much longer at night. We were in Delaware and decided that it was best to stop and rest and continue the drive in the morning. We tried to find a hotel to stay at but every hotel that we stopped at was booked. We had to continue to drive south and finally did find a hotel with an available room. There were ten of us driving down together and we managed to all squeeze into one room! Once we got up the room, we all went straight to sleep so we could get back on the road early. It was finally morning and we all got ready, ate breakfast and headed out the hotel and back on the road towards North Carolina. We drove through Virginia and we were finally in North Carolina. Although we were in North Carolina, it still took as another couple of hours to get to our house. When we were finally on the main road heading towards the house, we all got hungry and stopped to eat at Applebee’s. Once we ordered, got our food, and paid the check we headed back onto the road so we could reach our house. “Wow,” we all said our house was so enormous an elephant could fit in it. While walking through the doors we all ran up and down the stairs looking at every room. Our parents suggested, “Do you want to go to the beach?” (I’m hoping you know what the answer was) “Of course,” we responded. When walking to the beach we could smell the freshness of the ocean water and the scattered sand on the sidewalks. We crossed the boardwalk that reminded me of a pirates plank, set our stuff down, put on sunscreen, and finally ran into the ocean to cool off. We all wanted to learn how to skim board so my cousin went to get it. I pronounced, “Can I go first?” “Sure,” my cousins said. I took the skim board from my cousin Gabby’s hand and sprinted for the slim amount of water with the skim board tucked underneath my arm. I slammed down the skim board while leaping on to the board. I began to feel the board shaky and me thinking I’m going to fall! I slowly felt my left foot starting to slip off. “Thump” my left foot finally fell on the white, yellowish sand making me unbalanced. I could feel my body about to fall. “BOOM” the noise of my body was as loud as a wolf howling. My family rushed towards me; reminding me of a herd of wild animals they asked, “Are you ok?” I carefully lifted my body up and responded, “Yea, I’m ok!” In case you haven’t realized where I was I’ll tell you right now. My family and I were all talking a break from our home towns and wanted to go somewhere far but drivable. Our limit was 9 an a half hours so we decided on OBX. OBX stands for the Outerbanks. The Outerbanks are in North Carolina and it is one of the beach areas. The Outerbanks is very homie. You feel as if you are at home or as if you have your own beach house. Since this was such a long drive we went down for a week and a day so all together eight days. Although, It felt as if it was only six days because the drive took up at least a day each way. I think you’ve got the picture so let me get back to explaining my story of skim boarding. I kept trying to skim board over and over again. Then my mom questioned, “Emily can you throw this out for me?” I answered, “Do I have to?” My mom stated, “All I am asking you is to run this to the trash.” “Ok,” I responded. While I sprinted to the trash I was still thinking about how my brother and all my cousins all could skim board. As I slowly trudged back to the ocean waters with my shoulders shrugged over feeling like a failure and feeling as if my mind was telling me to quit, I knelt down on the golden sand that felt like a giant blanket lying across the whole beach. I sat cross legged beside my mother and stated, “I can’t do it; it’s just not fair.” My mom quoted, “Don’t worry you’ll get it.” I stated, “NO I won’t.” My mom quoted, “Don’t doubt yourself you never know what may happen.” My cousin Jackie saw my depressed eyes and dashed quickly towards me. She seemed as if she were a ghost. Jackie wondered, “What’s wrong?” I responded, “I can’t skim board.” Jackie tugged my arm by grabbing it with both hands one on my wrist and the other on my elbow. Meanwhile, I was trying to stall myself. Jackie spoke, “I’m not accepting your excuses, get up and let’s go.” Jackie mentioned, “You have to just believe in yourself and you will accomplish your goal.” Here’s a little about my cousin Jackie. Well my cousin Jackie is not someone you would call exactly independent she always needs to be around people and talking; you could call her an extrovert. She also is someone who hates to see someone upset or left out. If I had a sister I would want her to be just like her. A description on her would be she has straight light brown hair, light brown eyes, and is probably five feet tall. Enough about her let me tell how my story ends. I darted with the skim board in my right arm and tried and tried, but there was still no improvement. Right there was when I really wanted to go home and forget about the whole day. Jackie quoted, “Why don’t we take a break and join the family for some subs?” We sat legs spread out and ate ham, cheese, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches and drank either coke, fruit punch, or water. Then we waited a little while before we went to dive in the foamy water to avoid cramps. I suggested to my cousin Jackie while in the cold but also warm ocean water, “Do you want to try to skim board again? She stated, “Sure.” We both tried. Jackie of course aced skim boarding as if she were a baby taking her first steps. Jackie went so fast on the water she couldn’t even stop herself. It was my turn-I took the skim board, tucked it under my arm, and tried hoping this would be the last time I tried. I spoke to myself as I skimmed smoothly over the low amount of water saying, “I’m doing it, I’m doing it.” I jumped off the skim board very excited that I reached my goal of the day. Furthermore, I didn’t want to go back to our house anymore. I wanted to stay right here and enjoy the peaceful wind blow in my face while skim boarding. My eyes looked as if they were shining stars in a night sky when I succeeded in skim boarding. At least that’s what my mom said I looked like. Walking back to our house, it took us at least fifteen minutes to finally reach… Our house (the house was a tan color; it had three floors. It had lots of things to do there was a rec room that had foose ball and the game pool, a pool, and a hot tubs). Our three floored house was at least seven blocks away from the beach. Since, it was beginning to get dark you could start to see the starry night skies. As we walked up the drive way, threw the doors, and up the light brown stairs and up the light brown stairs we all were asking what we were eating for dinner? Our parent told us that it is pork chop night. Right there is when I realized today was the best day of goals succeeded in life that definitely were adventurous. While learning to skim board, I also learned that by being confident any one can do anything. Nothing is impossible. The drive to the Outerbanks was long and at times annoying. We did enjoy the view and the trip was totally worth it. I realized that I wasn’t mad that I couldn’t skim board it was because my brother and cousins could.

By: Emily Cubelo #5