Not all who wander are lost.: If everybody had an ocean across the U.S.A., then everybody'd be surfin' like Californ-i-a

Eight months in Californ-i-a, and I had never gone surfin. I think sometimes in life you think, "I have all the time in the world," so you put off what you really want to do until its too late. I definitely did that with surfing. Before I knew it, the movers were at my apartment in Hermosa Beach, packing my boxes for Texas and I had never hit the waters. So, when we were all in Cali for work, I decided its time - we're wet-suiting up and going to make a fool of ourselves.

In my head... this is what we looked like:

A more accurate visual of what we looked like is probably from some surf school website:

We started out on the sand, learning where we put our feet as we paddle - or get pulled - out and how to jump up on the board when a wave comes. And that I think was the strangest part to me. I don't know how I imagined these surfers got up on their board, but when they said I was supposed to leap up onto the board I was a little intimidated.

It took a little getting used to. First of all, to paddle out, I had to flop onto the board. And I mean flop. I felt a little like a Sea World seal, especially considering the wet suit. And then there was the jumping up on the board. The guys at the Santa Monica surf school were VERY patient. For two hours, they towed us out into the surf, waited for the perfect wave, then told us when to jump up. Once I finally got the hang of jumping up, the bigger issue was the balance. I had to learn to get my front foot out far enough to properly balance on the board. But it was rewarding to finally figure it out and stand up, riding the wave in to the shore. Why didn't I do this sooner? Maybe some day I'll become a beach bum, surfer girl.