Samirah sits cross-legged in the sand at the beach with her mask on.
Sitting in the sand isn't so bad.

Growing up in Bangladesh, one would assume I live for the beach and the ocean. Bangladesh is home to one of the longest natural sea beaches in the world. But I hate beaches. It’s too humid, the sand gets everywhere, and the seagulls are too loud. Hence, I don’t seek out the beach in any of the places I visit. In my two and a half years at Connecticut College, I have never visited the numerous beaches around. I have sampled lobster but going to the beach never seemed like a fun activity although countless Camels go there often.

I thought I’d be able to keep up the streak of not going to the beach but, seizing the opportunity the pandemic gave us, my friend Lexi thought the best place to have an in-person work meeting was at the beach. I wasn’t too happy about it. But I didn’t complain as I thought it would be nice to get out of another Zoom meeting. We both work at the Office of Communications and our boss said she could meet us on the beach with her dog! This semester, Lexi is living off-campus with two of her friends and her house is a minutes' walk away from a beach. So we decided to meet there. The day, although sunny, was quite windy. This resulted in sand being everywhere - the first thing I hate about beaches. But hearing the waves hit the shore was a lot better than staring at my flickering Zoom screen! 


Now, I won’t say I am a beach convert but it was nice to get off-campus for an hour even though it was with masks and socially distancing! One of the closest public beaches to Conn is Ocean Beach Park. You can follow Google maps to get there.