Monday Sept. 29th 2008 I Almost Died

So its taken me a couple of days to get myself together to write this. I guess I'll start with Monday morning, me and a group of friends from church decide to go to Cocoa Beach. It was Phil's birthday and Brittany wanted to relax so the beach was a perfect idea. Over the weekend did I not only make my whole body sore from ultimate pilates but also from a trip on Sunday night when I rolled my ankle and have the hugest weirdest bruise on my thigh lol. But anyways moving on... So I reluctantly agree to go to the beach bc hey its the beach!! Woohoo Par-tay!
On the way Phil gets a warning for driving 12 miles over the speed limit just feet from the beach parking lot. Hmm weird (warning!). We get to the beach and get into the water where Phil finds out that he still had his cell phone in his trunks pocket, there goes his cell phone (warning!). So I get into the water the sun is shining and the water is cool and brilliant. The waves are huge and I see all my friends go ahead and go deeper into the water, like really far out. Now Im not one to stray too far from the shore due to my paranoia of sharks and sea creatures undiscovered or seen beneath the ocean top. But they yell that there is a sand bar out there and so I think..."OK!". As I start going out I realize that I can no longer touch the bottom of the floor and now have to swim. I dont like doing this and I never do (warning!) I keep swimming then comes to mind all the shows from Shark Week which state that sharks are most prevelant by sandbars and when you see birds gathered together, kind of like this sandbar and those birds over there (warning!). But Im already more than half way there so might as well "just do it", my new slogan.
So for some reason it takes alot of hard swimming to get to the sandbar but I do it and the waves there are HUGE about 3 feet and very strong. Dave, who isnt a great swimmer, gets pushed off the sandbar and so do I. So we try to swim towards it again. But strangly the waves are really strong and as much as you swim forward it seems as if you never move (warning!). After being pushed all the way back to the shore (side note: at this time Brittany get outs to sun tan) I get frustrated and these waves are not going to stop me from getting back onto that sandbar, its become a competition between me and the ocean. Everyone else has body boards but I dont like to use them because then your really not swimming or enjoying the water if you just lay ontop of it. So this whole time me and Dave are laughing and getting close but not close enough to the sandbar. Its been quite a long time and Im getting tired swimming against the current for what was probably 30 minutes.
The waves are getting bigger and my smile is slowly fading (warning!), competition is now anger and the ocean was playing dirty. No matter how hard I tried to swim I just couldnt get anywhere. I start to panic and now understand that we are in a rip current and we decide to go back to shore. All the while the ocean starts to change now the waves are coming at us more frequently and from both sides. The waves are the biggest I have ever seen at almost 6 feet and quite frightening. I remember that the best way to get out of a rip current is to swim parallel, but whats the use of that information if the ocean wont let you! A local surfer was nearby and said we should get out (warning!), easier said than done. Dave had a body board but I didnt and everytime a wave came I was straining to keep swimming. The local surfer motioned me to come to him and I was fighting for my life. He was maybe 20 feet away and it took me just about 20 minutes to get to him. It was in those last couple feet that it became harder and harder to find the top of the water. The waves twisted my mind around to where I didnt know which end is up and my lungs were burning from lack of oxygen. I was so close to just giving up when I feel a arm pull me up. He told me to get on his surf board and he would push me when a wave came to get me to the shore. I was so tired and the beach looked so far away.
Just like he said the waves took me to the shore and now all I could do was sit and watch my friends struggle also in the rip current. A woman on the shore said that the sirfer had saved another woman yesterday and his wife was worried about him and wanted to know what he was doing. I told her the rip current was strong and he was saving us. His wife comes out furious at the risk he was putting himself into and I couldnt blame her. He was risking his life but I do know that he had saved mine and was saving my friends. She goes to call the Fire Rescue which is apparnetly ocean rescue also. Time passes and thankfully eventually everyone is out. We all thank him and go to our spot on the beach where Brittany has been this entire time oblivious to the fact that her friends were fighting for their lives.
Apparently I also learn that the surfer was extremely drunk and reaked of alcohol which I didnt know, havent been around many drunk people or slcohol to know what it smells like. A Jeep comes racing down the beach past us and finds out that we were the ones caught in the current. He was actually kind of disappointed that he didnt get to go after us becaude he hasnt had much excitement lately on the job lol. Helicopter comes out and the Diver deployed which he radioed. He said we were very lucky because the trench before the sandbar was from 9-10 feet deep where we were. As much as I am almost thrilled that I could have been on the news or taken up by the helicopter I realize that by the time the Rescue team arrived, I would have been dead. Even with the adrenaline rush, it was just enough to get me within inches of the surfer. None of my friends that were there really understands how close I was.
After all the sign that we all had, none of us did anything about them. Heavenly Father had to use a drunk surfer to save us because of our own stupidity and ignorance. I know that this experience has deeply effected me. I went the whole day in shock joking around, came home and burst out crying when relateing the story to my mom. The next day I go to school, go through the motions and I can feel myself pull back into not talking. Wednesday comes and I was supposed to go to Sears for an interview with my friend but I canceled because I just wanted to sleep. I slept til 3pm on Wednesday, thats not normal. I know that its probably only temporary but I still dont know how to deal with this. I worked so hard to be confident and outgoing and this one event just shut me down to what I was before.
What I do know is that God has a plan for me and obviously doesnt want me going anywhere and I was saved to live my life. So thats exactly what I have to do, I have to use this life and do something with it. I have to help others and progress. I have to most definitely repent because I certainly dont want to leave this world like this. I could have had a tombstone that said this.
Angela Marie Schnieder
Dec 3, 1988 - Sept 29, 2008