I am going to warn you, mine is very cliché. I chose this photo that I took at my favorite beach (my brother is scribbled over because I don’t think he would like me to post him, but he is the one holding the board underneath the scribbles). I have been going to this beach since I was a young child and it was always the highlight of my year when my parents would take us there. The car ride was long, but I even enjoyed that too. I could stay on the beach for hours and hours, maybe leave to get some ice cream, but then come right back. I feel that I am my most authentic self at the beach because I am naturally a very laid back, easy going person. However, my everyday life does not allow me to be that way. There’s so much chaos between work, school, and interpersonal relationships. There’s so much competition we are put into in our everyday lives whether we consent to it or not (jobs, school work, even micro things like, “I have to have the best *insert materialistic item here* and I will go through exhausting measures to obtain it”). And the thing is, if you don’t consent to compete and then proceed to actively compete, you will fall behind everyone else and your quality of life will diminish overtime. And so, I do jump right into the chaos and I do compete to the best of my ability because to have the quality of life that I want and to have all of the tangible and intangible things that I want out of this life, I have to. Not only do I have to, but I will say, I do want to as well because without the chaos and competition, life would be boring and I am currently pursuing things that I am passionate about. I say all of this to say, the beach is truly the one place where nothing is expected of me and I can just lay out in the sun, listen to the waves crash, eat some ice cream (cookies and cream, always) and be at ease. I do enjoy my job and I enjoy going to school, but it is nice to step away for a little bit and relax.