According To Kimberly... // An Orange County Life + Style Blog : That Time I Almost Drowned (Last Week)

Believe it or not, last week I almost drowned (pre-warning: this post is a bit more personal)...

It's been a whirlwind of a week since this happened and I just needed to take some time out for myself as a mixture of emotions continue to run inside me. You never expect anything like this to happen to you...until it does. My little sisteroos almost had a drowning experience (and they are better swimmers than me!) a couple years ago and since then I've had a weird feeling of "what if that happened to me?" and I can't believe it did.

Last Sunday, I attended the #RoxyFitness event in Huntington Beach for support. This event consisted of stand-up paddle boarding (SUP) and a 5K marathon (if you know me then you know I cannot run), followed by beach yoga. Since this was happening in my local city, I wanted to come out and support the event. I signed up for SUP and beach yoga. Note that I have tried SUP a couple of times (well, two times) in calm waters before but never at the beach. As the days were leading closer and closer to the event, I got a little more concerned about doing SUP. Even as I was checking in at the event, I asked them if I got scared out there if it was okay to turn back around. But, a part of me wanted to be brave and not quit right away and give it a try. I attempted SUP in the open waters and I was doing okay at first, making my way over a couple waves. Shortly later, my SUP board flipped over and everything changed.

I remember being in the ocean - BY MYSELF - with the paddle in hand and no life vest (none was offered). Way ahead of me was my board, flipped upside down. I started to swim towards it but the waves kept crashing down on me. All I could think of was to stay afloat (cause I did not want to get sucked under the waves and get stuck) and swim towards my SUP board. I could see the shore ahead of me but it looked ever so far away (side note: I'm usually pretty good at being able to hold my breath to swim across a swimming pool but this was much, much farther than that). I kept trying to swim towards my SUP board and the waves kept crashing down at me (I was seriously at the worst spot possible) but I was determined.

Of course, after multiple attempts of trying to swim towards shore (and not going anywhere due to being under the crashing waves), a moment of fear came in me. How am I supposed to swim to my SUP board if I keep getting pulled back by the waves? What am I supposed to do when I get to my board that's flipped upside down? Are there any sharks nearby? By this time, I was getting tired and started to scream for help and no one was near me. I continued to scream for help as I tried to swim towards my SUP board and still there was no response. Finally, I saw someone out of the corner of my eyes and I tried to signal and scream towards them. Luckily, they came to rescue me as I don't know how much energy I would've had left.

They say that your life tends to flash before your eyes before you die. This did not happen. My loved ones were who I immediately thought of and thinking of them helped me stay focused to keep on going. Was there fear? Yes. Was there panic? Almost. All I could think about was this was not going to be my destiny and I was going to fight until my last breath if I had to. Thankfully I survived and was blessed that this was not going to be how my story ends. I've been feeling very fortunate since and more careful too (no more beach water sports for me for awhile). Definitely taking a more appreciation towards life and enjoying each day as it comes.

The moral of the story is: if you don't feel like something's safe to do, trust your gut. Your inner intuition is there for a reason and, many times, it's probably right. I didn't feel comfortable to try SUP out in the open waters and I shouldn't have even tried to begin with. Now I live with the tragic memory of being lost at sea and almost losing my life in one of the worst ways possible. It's a memory that'll haunt me forever but, trust me, lesson learned. As the saying goes, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Have a blessed day and don't take things for granted. Thanks for reading and sending you hugs!