Riding the Wave

When I was about 6 or 7 years old, I almost drowned.

Photo by David Troeger on Unsplash

(Maybe I am being dramatic, but it sure felt like I was going to drown at the time.)

My mother and I were visiting Hawaii for a family reunion. This day, just like most days, we went to the beach.

Unlike most days, which usually took us to the reef-protected Ala Moana beach in downtown Honolulu, we had driven to Oahu’s North Shore…