I couldn’t wait to jump into the salty navy blue water. It was too hot to just sit on the boat. The sun was piercing my body with heat. I felt as I was going to have heat exhaustion. I walk to the edge of the boat and drop myself into the large body of water. With my arms sprawled like an eagles wings, I lay there floating in the glistening blue water. Drifting off into the summer sun, I suddenly feel sharp stings all across my arms and back. I start twitching as if I’m being electrocuted. I thought I had got tangled in the rough seaweed circling me. I thought wrong; I had been stung by a jellyfish... I could barely make my way back to the boat, the pain was too intense for me to handle. The salt water was seeping into my skin where I had been slashed by the long shocking tentacles. I was too weak to shout for assistance back to the boat, I feel as if the boat kept drifting further and further along with the current.

I slowly but surely arrive at the boat to find a cure for the sharp electric feeling shocks. As I arrive towards the boat, people start pointing out a huge jellyfish in the water near me. I hear my worried mom shouting “Ireland watch out!!!” Little did she know I had already been stung... her warnings where two minutes too late... I make my way up the ladder and searched for the captain. My skin finally has a chance to breathe, my stings felt worse than they did when they were being suffocated by the ocean salt water. I arrive on the boat, my skin looking as if I were in a sword battle and lost. I find my mom to show her my wounds; she takes a huge worried sounding gasp as soon as she laid eyes on my candy apple red back and arms. She gently touches my stings with a face expression of shock that I’m even alive. Of course though, she is very over dramatic...

As soon as I contact the captain I show him my scarred back and arms. His reaction worried me, I hadn’t had a chance to see my own back or arms yet therefore I was nervous. At that point I didn’t care what it would look like; I just wanted the pain to go away. The captain finally speaks,

“I’ll be right back, give me two minutes.” He said in his deep Hispanic voice. I was hoping he would hurry, just standing there was difficult. My back and arms felt like they were being stabbed by a fork vigorously. He finally comes back.

I notice he’s holding a bottle of meat tenderizer. I was highly confused, but in too much pain to even ask. He pulls me to the side and starts drowning me in the tenderizer, my stings sizzle with pain. A couple seconds later, the stings vanished. I felt as if I were never even stung. It was a miracle! I was relieved the pain was gone. Standing there, I thanked the captain, I start head back outside, I turn the corner and see the captain grabbing a mid-size net made of plastic. I didn’t know what he had planned on doing with it. What if he is going to try to catch and kill the jellyfish that had stung me? A couple minutes later I realize that he is. That just wasn’t alright with me. I walk to side of the rocking boat; there are a handful of people standing there. I push to the front too see what exactly is going on. I see the captain with a smirk on his face while holding the net with the poor jellyfish trapped inside of it. The jellyfish just looked as if he were running out of life. The bright pinkish brown tentacles just dangling through the holes in the net. It was pathetic and it needed to be let go.

I march straight up to the captain and express to him that what he is doing is unjust. The people on this boat could care less about any ocean creature to live. They were all laughing around the captain, the more laughs the more the captain resented my opinion of letting the creature free. I stopped all laughter that second. I stood in front of the ill-mannered crowd. I told them that we are entering this ocean at risk, and that we must be aware of the dangers that come with using these creatures’ homes as a playground. I am the one who was put at risk and I’m not complaining at all. The people stood there looking at me as if I were a joke. At first I was embarrassed and I didn’t want to just make a fool of myself. I told myself I need to make an impression on these ruthless people. I yanked the net out of the captains’ grimy hands and lowered jellyfish back into the water. I watched his helpless self struggling to swim away, but the beautiful glowing creature had gained strength once again. Sitting at the edge of the boat watching the large arresting creature fade off into the distance I felt satisfaction and proud of myself for not allowing this hazardous yet winsome creature to be killed that moment. It felt good.