For winter break of my freshman year of high school, my mom took my brother and I to the Bahamas. We arrived there on Christmas Day, so we got to spend it in a warm place for a week. However, the highlight of the trip was when we went on our snorkeling trip, aka snorkeling with sharks. Yes, sharks. At the time, we knew that there was a chance to snorkel in the same general area where the sharks claimed their domain. Fortunately, they weren’t like Jaws, and were peaceful sharks (more about that later). Being 14, you realize that this was an extraordinary chance you have, and to this day it was awesome. The first round of snorkeling was without the predators of the ocean, and we got to enjoy a very beautiful look at the Bahamian waters. After a while, we heard the calls to return to the boat for another round of snorkeling. This time, the boat took us out to the bay, where we were told by our captain (an Irishman with a very Bahamian accent) to jump in. Oh and, there were sharks. There was a rope that connected us to the boat, meaning that when it doubt, hold on to it. While we were holding on to it and treading water, we were able to see that there were sharks underneath. I like to think that lucky for us, we couldn’t accurately tell how far below us they were; my mom standing on the boat was potentially a few seconds away from having one or both of her sons returning to the boat and/or home with missing limbs or not at all. Okay, so they were the more peaceful type of sharks, but the point still stands that my mom was watching us both very tensely. Finally, we were called back onto the boat. The cool part was that once we were safely tucked away, the crew decided to feed the sharks with dead fish. Those sharks JUMPED onto the dead fish. Within seconds, there was zero evidence that the fish were even thrown into the water-that’s how fast and thorough the sharks made mincemeat out of their food. One just wonders that if you fell in into the water, how screwed you’d be if the sharks decided that you were a plump snack ripe for the picking. Finally, the captain joked that those sharks “are our complaints department”, highlighting the whole excursion rather perfectly.