Photo By Olivia Savino

Long Beach Island is a hot vacation spot on the Jersey Shore and holds a special place in my heart. My family and I come here every summer and own a beach house on the island.
Ever since I was a baby, we would take the hour-and-15-minute ride to the island every summertime. I always thought of LBI as the place where your problems melted away with the summer heat.
Never would I have thought I would witness everyone’s worst fear: being swept out to sea.
It was Labor Day Weekend, Sunday, Sept. 3. The day started off bright and early at 6 a.m. My cousin and I woke up to see the sunrise and took pictures. After only getting four hours of sleep that night, we decided to sleep more and head up to the beach.
It was a beautiful day with a nice breeze on the beach. Everywhere on the island and on the weather forecasts, people warned everyone about the bad rip currents.
Rip currents are extremely dangerous and are known to pull people away from shore and out to sea. Lifeguards advise you not to go out far because the current can be very strong, and waves get rough.
The speeds of the currents change, but they can pick up so quickly that within seconds your life can be put into great danger. Many think that if they are a good or strong swimmer, they will be fine. But the ocean is a force of nature stronger than all.
After seeing all the warnings, I was not too sure if I wanted to go in the water since I had to look after my younger cousin as well. We decided to venture into the water up to our knees for a while and made sure we stayed in between the flags in front of the lifeguard.
Suddenly, the lifeguard started blowing her whistle around 3 p.m. and gesturing for everyone to come back to shore. Without hesitation, my cousin and I hurried out of the water. We were confused and asked someone else, who had talked to the lifeguard, what was happening. We thought maybe a boat saw a shark or something, but it wasn’t that.
Someone was missing three blocks down; they had been taken by the dangerous current. There were people on JetSkis, boats, paddle boarders and a large helicopter hovering over the ocean. Everyone was watching and hoping that the person would be found quickly.
It was hard to watch and very upsetting. Out of all the years my family and I had come down to Long Beach Island, we had never seen anything like this. My cousins and I ended up leaving the beach and going to the other side of the island.
We got in the car and headed away, but we continued to get updates on what was happening from my mom. Soon we learned that they found the young man. As we were hearing this news, an ambulance rushed past us. It turned out the ambulance carried the young man they found. He was in his early 20s and from the Dominican Republic. However, sadly, he had drowned.
This untimely death deeply upset my family and me. We all felt distraught to say the least and just felt terrible. This hit very close to home, and I felt freaked out since it could have been me or my cousin since we were in the water not too far from where the young man was found.
This experience changed my life because it showed me that tomorrow is not promised. My sympathy and condolences go out to the family of the man who lost his life.