Yesterday I did something that I have always wanted to do. I went to a nude beach. It was as exciting as jumping into the water itself. It was a half cloudy day with nice glimmers of sunlight. I arrived at the beach wearing my jogging shirt (a lightweight shirt I jog in) and my bathing suit (its good to jog in because it actually has a pocket for my keys.) 

     It was funny, as I walked up to the beach which actually seemed to be a mile away. It took forever to get there. On the beach an older man with a shirt walked passed me, he had no pants. I didn't look at him. 

     I laid out my two beach towels; I need two because I am too tall for one, and started to strip off my clothing. First I took off my shirt, then the sandals, bathing suit, and then lastly my underwear. I am a total freak and can't run in a bathing suit without underwear because that netting stuff is just too irritating on my legs. I get rashes from that stuff. As I took off the underwear I didn't have a moment of shame, its funny I thought it was going to be scary but it wasn't. I was near a man reading newspapers in a chair, next to him were two lifeguards, and the other side had a couple of people. None of us were close because we didn't have to be. It was not the nicest day, and the beach was not swapped. 

     I turned into a hermit. I listened to my iPod and started reading a book I had started months ago. I just finished "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake" the night before nude beach day, so I wasn't really reading attentively at the moment. I wanted to look to the sides of me, but I was cautious; I was afraid of the naked people yelling at me. I didn't want them thinking I was being a creep staring at them, which I was not. 

     The wind upon my naked body at the beach felt nice. I felt so lite. The sun toasted my whole body while I was there. I learned about the true weight of clothing. I have to tell you, when you are outside naked for a bit you can feel the difference. 

     There is something I had no idea was an invention. There are these things that block the wind. They are like fabric walls that you can bring to the beach. This one thin guy basically had four corners surrounding him. I guess he didn't want the old guys to gawk at him or something. I was alright because that is why I went there. To have people see me because I had newly found confidence.

     See two years ago I weighed a total of 230 lbs, and I have worked my way down to 172 lbs; give or take 5 lbs. So not only was this a chance for me to feel comfortable in my skin (butt naked), but I was also happy to show off my new body to the world. Even though there was no one there to impress. 

     My friends have been saying "NO" when I begged them to go with me one day to the nude beach, and my boyfriend says that he would be embarrassed to go. The twig of a boyfriend with the nice body is ashamed of his body so much that he would not go with me.

     Soon enough after switching from my back to my stomach so many times I was bored. I decided I was going to take a dip into the water. As I got up I noticed someone over by the water.

 I asked him "Is the water terribly cold?"

He responded "Yeah, too cold to go in."

     I said really, and then I jumped in the water. The ice cold water and the ultra stony sand caused me to instantly plunge in. I had no choice. The sand was on such an incline that I sank upon trying to just wean myself into the water. I swam about for a minute and then I got out of the water. Then instantaneously my body temperature got warmer just from stepping out of the water.

     I dried off and lounged for a bit longer. As I went to pack up and start to walk to the bathroom before leaving, the guy from the ocean was walking toward the bathroom. We started to talk about how no one was talking at the beach and how it was kind of boring at the beach just watching all these pod people listening to their music and lounging. The fact that people were not engaging in the company of strangers was sad.

     Since now I had someone to talk to I decided to stay longer. Meeting an acquaintance naked while they are naked is rather funny. You have nothing to hide, and you seek nothing to hide. Its not like you can be rude about someone else’s body or have them be rude about your body. It is really rather euphoric, the fact that you don't have to have any shame because "EVERYONE ELSE IS NAKED TOO!"

     We talked for a couple of hours about stupid stuff. He told me about the older gentlemen who sometimes go up to people and are creeps. Which I thought was funny because I knew that if I did that it would be less weird because I am so young.  He worked in sales for a medical packaging company. It caused him to travel all over the place, which was cool. I thought to myself how fuenny it is that a sales rep for a medical packaging company was talking to me on a nude beach. My expectation of just hippies being nudists made me laugh. I guess anyone can enjoy being naked. When it was time to leave I put back on my clothing said goodbye to my new acquaintance, and felt better about myself.

      I felt better because I was able to be confident in a world that just beats us down.