Cold Spash: Story 2/100
When I was 21, I jumped into Glacier Bay in Alaska. I was working on a cruise ship as a chef, traveling around Alaska for the season, and each week we docked in Glacier Bay. The average age of our passengers was around 87, but midway through the season, we had a father and son onboard who were young and excited for adventure. When we hit Glacier Bay, they loudly announced that they were planning to jump in off the dock… into the thirty-something degree waters. I watched in horror while several crew members decided that they were going to jump in with them.
I hate being cold. Hot tubs are my jam. The tropics are my heaven. I will choose hot, humid, and sweaty over even an edge of chill any day of the week. It was against my nature to be spending the summer working in Alaska, beautiful, majestic, amazing, and *cold* Alaska, but it’d been a grand adventure. I wanted stories to tell my grandchildren someday. I wanted travel, and excitement, and experiences that were way outside of the box. I wanted to say yes to life.
But I didn’t want to say yes to freezing cold water. That seemed like too much to ask.
And yet, I put on my bathing suit. I grabbed a towel. I followed the rest of the crew out to the dock.
I didn’t want to say yes…. But I couldn’t say no.
