Living my whole life in Wisconsin, I haven't had very many chances to be near the ocean. However I have been out on the Pacific Ocean once, just once off the coast of Massachusetts. 2019. It was late October, almost Halloween. 8:30 in the morning, no more than 40 degrees, standing on a dock waiting for some boat to come pick us up. I'm so cold I can feel my legs start to shiver and my hands going numb, even through two pairs of gloves and hand warmers. I remember being visibly upset for a variety of reasons; to name just a few: I was cold, I was halfway across the country from my friends and would be for Halloween, I had yet to have breakfast (so I was hangry). As if on cue, my aunt comes walking over with a Dunkin Donuts box and 3 steaming cups of hot chocolate. 

*****

We finally boarded the boat and honestly, I'm ready to go home. I don't even want to see the dolphins or whales or whatever else I'm supposed to be looking for. So I'm just sitting there, on the edge of the boat, waiting to launch… waiting to go home. At this point, I'm basically falling asleep—my body shutting down from the cold, when a loud, slightly grainy sounding voice blasts through the air. The voice is shouting about finding a seat so we can “get out there”. 

*****

Thirty minutes later, we are finally outside of the bay, and it's “getting serious”. We have seen a few pods of dolphins, but nothing else too exciting. At this point I really just wanted to go back to the house, I was already imagining being back in my bed under 4 blankets—when my daydream is interrupted by the voice coming back over the intercom “Alright everyone, we have a special guest here who came just to show off! Take a look off the left side of the boat and look as far out as you can!”

Personally, I wanted to stay curled in my ball of what little warmth I had left, but my mom had other plans. We made our way through the crowd to try and find a spot on the railing to take a look at whatever had shown up. More people moved out of the way, ooh-ing and ahh-ing as they went. I’ve finally made my way to the front and I’m looking out at the ocean and seeing… nothing. I turn to make a comment to my mom and she’s got a wide eyed look going right past me, out towards the ocean. I whip my head back around just to see a whale breaching the surface. Not just any whale, an orca whale. “WHAT!!” I was SHOCKED. For years now I’ve been obsessed with orcas—seeing one in real life really was like a dream come true.