Life's an Adventure 1 < WildBob >

Life's an Adventure by WildBob

Have you ever found yourself at a pivotal point in your life and wondered how you got there?

My dad used to always say “Life is an adventure”, but I never really understood what he meant. I always thought that adventures involved expeditions to far off places, or being put in some unusual dire set of circumstances.

I certainly didn’t consider my life an adventure.

I graduated High School last year with a pretty good GPA but absolutely no desire to go on to college. I really had no clue what I wanted out of life. I was pretty good at sports, but not the start that the colleges were looking for. I was pretty good at school, but I didn’t qualify for any scholarships, which meant that I wouldn’t be going to any of the top schools. I liked writing and had even had some of my stuff published, but nothing that I could make a living at.

That’s why I decided to wait a year or two before heading off to college. I could live at home and concentrate on my writing. It had sounded so convincing when I was talking to my parents. My older siblings were in college. Of course they got great grades, scholarships and excelled at sports. They were the type of kids that any parent would be proud of. Most of my parents college funds had already been spent getting them so close to graduation. The stock market had taken care of the rest of it so, my parents didn’t need too much convincing.

But, I didn’t really concentrate on writing. I made some half hearted attempts to find employment but I wasn’t interested in some mindless minimum wage job. I went surfing most days just because I didn’t have much else to do. It had been great at first, but then going to the beach was even getting boring. The beach friends that I had acquired didn’t seem to have much ambition beyond surfing and partying. They were pretty easy to hang out with. No worries, no problems….

That’s how I found myself out at the beach, surfing that day. The only thing that was different was that the waves were much bigger than I’d ever surfed before. That brought out a lot of surfers. Big waves, great rides. For once, I was really into it. I lost track of time, my friends, my worries. I was just one with my board. I shot down the face of a huge wave in a truly exhilarating ride, but the tip of my board caught too much of the ocean and I found myself flying through the air. I was just about to hit the water when I saw another surfer coming directly at me. It was as if time slowed to a crawl.

I could see the look on his face as he tried to maneuver his board to avoid me, but I knew he couldn’t cut that sharply. I tried to contort my body so he would miss, but my body was moving too slow. The other board caught me right in the head. Time sped up again. I was slipping down beneath the waves.

I was still conscious at some level because I could feel myself trying to hold my breath, but I couldn’t get my arms to work. I felt my self kind of drifting off, then forcing myself to stay alert. I saw what I thought were mermaids. They were talking about me as though I couldn’t hear.

“He doesn’t seem like one we could use”, said on.

“He has no drive and no training”, said another

They swirled around me as I slowly descended into the darker waters.

“He was picked for us so we should use him”, said a female voice. “We may not get another chance”

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