I walked off of the gigantic norwegian pearl cruise ship that had brought me here to the Dominican Republic. My family are the type of people to just go with the flow they’re just very flexible people overall , I kinda like how they’re flexible nut at the same time plans change often. My family had decided that we wanted to go whale watching. There was plenty of spanish speaking natives that were taking tour groups to go whale watching and so we went with a man who said he could give us a good deal. My mom could only speak a little bit of spanish because she took a spanish class in college so she translated for us. The price was expensive to go whale watching but what would you expect when everyone in your family wants to go whale watching and when I say everyone I mean my mom, dad, nana, papa, my two younger sisters and myself. My grandpa argued back and forth this was a common thing for him he argues everything even when he’s wrong this is a well known Maynor trait. He shouted at the tour man  to scare him into lowering the price to go see the whales and he ended up bargaining the price from more than 100 dollars to only 30 dollars, no wonder the man was willing to lower it that low….We followed the shady man walking us to the boat to see the whales and as we walked there were spanish natives yelling in rapid spanish as a sign of warning to not go with the man, My stomach churned it felt like a pit in hell being burned not with the excitement I had been feeling before but with this sense of danger and sickness something just did not feel right. We continued to walk to the boat discouraging all this sense of doubt and sickness till we stepped on an old rickety dock and looked down to an old discolored row boat with a tiny motorized motor on the back, We didn’t know what to do so we climbed into wooden death trap and headed of through the dark  dangerous blue rough bumpy waters of the ocean as we started to leave my parents wondered where the life jackets for us were the guys pulled out 4 life jackets and said that those were all they had. During this fretful time we tried to calm this uneasiness by joking around and making a plan of who was to be fed to the sharks.
I remember my mom had said 

“we take the four life jackets and give them to the children and nana, dad you’ll take Lexie, I’ll take Alissa, nana you take bella, Then we throw papa to the sharks because he’s too slow and we’ll use him to slow them down for the rest of us.”

“Mom, you tell us if you don’t have anything positive to say don’t say anything at all” I yelled

“I’m trying to help us through this so it is positive and your grandfather deserves it!” My mother screamed back.
  We came to the conclusion of my grandfather the one who bargained in the first place and made us all go instead of switching groups to be thrown overboard  and either use him as a floatation device or feed him to the sharks and whales while we swam away. We had reached the point where we were to stop and watch the whales perform but we waited a little while and they weren’t there, Growing cold and impatient we were about to head back when the whales popped their heads up and leaped out of the water ever so gracefully and landed onto their backs and they did their dance. Seeing them emerge from the dark waters made me excited and staring off in amazement until the water bounced so high I panicked for my family and my own life. The other boats filled with tourist had the strong look on their faces of panic as well but I believe mine out panicked everyone else’s. Eventually the watered had settled (back to it’s unusually threatening form) and we darted back to the island to the rickety old dock that had frightened me but had now gave me the sense of overwhelming joy to be alive and being gracious for the life that I have. Even though our legs were still shaking from the alarming unpleasant ride we made our way back to the norwegian pearl to take some time to realize what had just happened. I made it to our cabin and laid on the trundle bed that rocket side to side at night because of the waves and the german captain who didn’t know too much about steering a boat.

I laid there thinking that If I had died that day what kind of spirit would I had left behind? These risky trips are astounding and definitely worth the risk but death still stares at you bringing thought of how lucky I am to be alive and be thankful for walking and talking and breathing and seeing for the family I have. One thing I had learned through it to trust your gut if you feel something is wrong don’t go with it listen to what your body and mind is trying to tell you, It just might save your life……..Even looking back on the eventful day I’m still grateful for the experience and learning opportunity