Deep sea fishing is a staple of beach life in Jersey.  It something every yearlong resident of the Jersey shore has done at least once in their lives.  Trust me on this, you can ask anyone, and the answer will always be, yes.  More than likely the locals fished that week.

I’ve been deep sea fishing numerous times and each and every time brings its thrills, scares, and excitements,  I think it’s all these differing emotion’s being brought into one event that make fishing, specifically deep sea fishing, so much fun and continues to bring people back time and time again.

Each time someone decides they want to go deep sea-fishing they have to make the decision whether they want to forfeit their sleep and get up at 5am in the hopes of catching more fish or take the easy way out and go mid-day, knowing that less fish will bite during these hours.  For my Dad, Grandpa, and myself, nine times out of ten we chose forfeiting sleep.  Every single time we decide to go mid-day we end up regretting it, vowing to never do it again yet somehow at one point or another one of us makes the decision to go mid-day.

Now that a person has chosen the time to go fishing, they must decide what boat they want to go on.  At the Jersey shore, there are the common fishing boats, the ones all locals know by name because they go up and down the cost morning, noon, and night.  I’m not exactly sure why, but most of these boats are called Norma-K 1, 2, 3, etc.  There are also the smaller fishing boats called charter boats that take smaller groups of people out on fishing trips.  Both have their pros and cons.  The bigger boats are more fun as there are more people to talk to and more people around you catching fish.  But, with more people around you fishing it also limits the number of fish you can catch because someone else’s line is always getting the bite.  On the smaller boats, there is a much greater chance of catching a bunch of fish in one go but the boat is less stable and rocks around a lot.  While I don’t get seasick, I know others who do and have personally witnessed my fair share of people getting sick.

Regardless of what time you go and what boat you take, deep sea fishing is guaranteed to be a good time and I defiantly recommend it if you ever visit the Jersey Shore.

Point Bridge is the gateway to happiness and serenity for me.  It’s the passageway from the stresses of the world to the peace of the beach.  It’s almost as if this bridge is the barrier for stress and all problems in this world.  It’s not that I never worry after crossing this bridge, but the problems of home life just seem less important and less finite.

That’s it.  That’s why the bridge is representative and symbolic for me.  It represents all that is good in the world.  I could just end it here.  Call it quits and leave you with the imageless idea of a bridge that somehow magically keeps all bad things out and lets all good things in.

Doing this though would be selling myself short-not just as a writer but as a human.  People need to understand what this bridge means, looks like, and why it’s important.

So, here we go.  Might as well start describing the physical bridge itself.  The bridge is blue, goes over the inlet where boats pass through to go to and from the ocean, and is pretty decrepit.  Yet, the oldness of the bridge is not distracting from its symbolic beauty.  The bridge is also a little rickety as the bridge is actually a drawbridge and can go up or down whenever a boat needs the clearance.   It’s probably the salt from the ocean and the constant movement from the bridge that has caused the bridge to disintegrate so much.

When you cross over the bridge it brings you from the highway to the oceanside communities.  In the simplest sense it’s the break between the constant buzz of the highway to the slow paced, easiness of the beach roads.  It’s in this way that it breaks the stress or constant buzz of life and slows it down to slow paced beach life.

The bridge itself also breaks the sunset and is beautiful at sunrise or sunset hours.  When you cross the bridge at these hours, the dark blue water is illuminated by the colors of the sky and sun.  Its breathtaking a worth a million pictures.

I wish everywhere had these types of bridges, but as I have been writing this, I have come to realize that it’s not the bridge that removes the stress, it’s the beach and the mentality I have created about the location.  Regardless, I will always think of the Point Bridge as the entrance to a peaceful time.

New Jersey is known primarily for three foods, pizza, bagels, and tomatoes. Yet, New Jersey’s restaurants and farms have so much more to offer (of course I am speaking from personal experience and a strong bias!).

When I think of Jersey food, what first comes to mind is the boardwalk.  The boardwalk is home to some of the most interesting, cholesterol raising foods that I have ever seen.  For example, fried Oreos.  It’s almost as if regular Oreos didn’t have enough sugar to begin with so people decided that they needed to be rolled in dough, fried, and then coated in powder sugar.  Fried Oreos isn’t the only cholesterol raising food that the boardwalk is home too, it’s home to the staples as well: funnel cake, buckets of fries, dollar pizza slices, and cheesesteaks.

Now anyone and everyone can make the argument that these creations are not exclusive to New Jersey, so Jersey can’t take credit for any of this food.  My response; nowhere else can you find it all in one place.

Living so close to the beach has its benefits and its downsides.  In regard to the food, I feel like it’s a huge catch-22.  Yes, I have access to the great boardwalk food, but with that same notion I have access to the boardwalk food, the same food that with a bite makes your cholesterol skyrocket.  The first couple of weeks I was living at the beach you could catch me weekly walking up to the boardwalk just to get the food at all hours of the day.  After a few weeks I realized that I just needed to cut myself off, but it wasn’t easy.  There were definitely times when I started walking up to the boardwalk for a greasy late snack just to remember that I didn’t feel like becoming a 6-foot, 500-pound, 18-year-old.

While I have focused practically this entire blog on all the unhealthy options available on the boardwalk, I thought I might as well mention the “healthier” options.  New Jersey, known for its congested suburbs, congest beaches, and traffic, doesn’t sound like a place that would have good vegetables or fruit, or any space to actually grow it.  In fact, New Jersey’s farms produce some of the best sweet corn, tomatoes, strawberries, and numerous other vegetables and fruit.  These items can also be found on the boardwalk.  One of my all-time favorite desserts during the summer is strawberry shortcake and when I tell you the boardwalk makes some of the best, I am not exaggerating.

So, if you ever need your fill of deliciously unhealthy food, hop on the Garden State Parkway and head south.  You’ll find it.

I previously wrote about the beach and running and decided that the one I was most passionate about and could elaborate about the most was the beach, specifically the Jersey shore.  For this blog, I decided that I would write about my job at the beach this summer.  When the COVID-19 crisis first hit, I realized that my previous job as a floral assistant and driver at weddings was likely lost as no large gatherings were going to be held for a long time.  I began researching other jobs I could apply to and kept running into dead ends as most jobs were no longer hiring or were actually laying people off.  For a good period of time I kept applying to jobs at home up North just to be told they were no longer hiring.  Eventually I stopped applying and realized I needed to start thinking outside the box and look for workplaces that would actually be in need of workers.

My family decided to take a trip in late April to the beach to check on the house and on the drive down it hit me; the beach would always need workers, especially now as people were no longer allowed out of the country and more people would take day trips to the beach.  I applied to one job and within a day I got an email back saying to come in and that I could start working that day.  I was amazed and thrilled that I would have a job over the summer.

I began working as a dishwasher at a beachfront café and within the week was promoted to a line cook.  To me, the most interesting part about my rapid promotion up the restaurant job latter was that I had never cooked before.  I guess I was a natural though because I learned the menu quickly and memorized all the prep.  Not only did I enjoy cooking, I enjoyed being able to walk right onto the deck and look out at the waves and beach.  While I did spend a lot of time in the kitchen this summer, living down at the beach for work also allowed me to watch innumerable early morning sunrises and hangout on the beach with my friends.  I am so grateful that I got a job at the beach this summer and for all the opportunities and experiences I was able to have as a result.            

The Beach:

There’s one thing in this world that I simply cannot live without and it is the beach.  Now when one thinks of the beach they might think of the ocean, the sand, maybe the food or possibly even the boardwalk.  When I think of the beach however, I think of the serenity.  The serenity of the dark blue waves crashing, the warm humid air on your skin, and the sand lightly brushing your feet.

I have lived and gone to the beach, specifically the Jersey shore for as long as I can remember.  For me it’s the most peaceful place on the planet.  It’s a little ironic that the Jersey shore is the place that I find most peaceful because it’s known for its overcrowded beaches, obscenity, and traffic.  Yet, these elements are party of the serenity for me.  Without these elements, the Jersey shore wouldn’t be the Jersey shore and I wouldn’t be a peace.

During the COVID-19 shutdown, I decided to move down the shore for the full spring and summer.  For those first few months the beach felt like a ghost town and everything felt off.  Once June hit, everything changed, the town filled up and was electric again.  The serenity had come back.

Running:

Another passion of mine is running.  I have been an avid runner since middle school and in high school participated in winter and spring track as well as cross country.  The sport has taught me a lot about life itself and I think that is why I am so infatuated with it.  For starters the sport has taught me perseverance.  Through some of the toughest workouts and races I have been mentally and physically exhausted.  Every time I want to quit but I’ve been reminded and remember that everyone is in pain and is struggling.  The longer I hold on and keep my legs moving, the stronger I am mentally than the others.

My ability to push the pain outside of my head and keep going is a demonstration of my character and will.  The sport has also taught me teamwork and the benefits of a group effort.  When someone was struggling during a workout or race people would be waving teammates on to move up and push on or they would yell to keep up.

This motivation helped unite me with the people I was running with and brought us together in a way that only struggle could.  While these are only two examples of what running has taught me, they are prime examples of how profound the lessons I have learned from running have been.