So I have a 6 year old sister right, and she's crazy about the ocean, so much so that she has joined the local "Little nippers", which is lifesaving for kids.
So we're on a family holiday at the beach and all she wants to do is to swim in the sea with me; but the beach has a danger rating of 7.5/10 and there are no lifesaving flags at this time of year. I look out at the sea and it is rough! The waves are huge and strong and I can see rips all the way from the beach. There are a few people swimming though and they look okay, so I tell my sister that we can go swimming. On a side note, the water is freezing, like "oh-its-actually-not-so-bad-because-im-so-numb-I-can't-feel-anything" kind of cold.
Anyway, we go swimming and its clearly too rough for her; its even too rough for me. About half an hour in, a gigantic wave comes, knocks us flying and dunks me so hard I feel like I've been thrown in a washing machine. I surface, a little worse for wear, but my sister is nowhere to be seen. So I start to panic because I'm suddenly that crazy person who let her Grade 1 sister swim in a dangerous ocean and then lost her. Suddenly she surfaces, like 50m away from me, close to the shore, coughing and spluttering and looking pretty exhausted.
So I swim up to her, trying madly to think of creative ways to make this whole situation okay. I start freaking out that she's going to be scared of the ocean forever and that i've psychologically destroyed her. Finally I reach her, and before I get a chance to comfort her or even say a word, she turns to me with the biggest smile and goes:
"WOW! That was a BIG one, I felt EXACTLY LIKE A BOOGIE BOARD!!!! Are you okay Bronny? Your eyes are a bit red, if you just blink really fast the salt doesn't hurt them anymore. HOW COOL IS THAT!"
And without another word my tiny, 6-year-old, crazy optimistic, sister runs back into the ocean for round two.
I. Love. Kids.
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