TMFSaintCroix

My Story

So I was in film school down in Savannah, shooting my thesis on Tybee Island. We were on the beach, and it was a "message in a bottle" scene. So my actor threw the wine bottle into the ocean, and it didn't go anywhere. It just sat there. So we tried a couple more takes and finally I said, "okay, we have to go to the other side of the island." So we packed up our gear and hiked about a mile. That side of the island was perfect. Nice waves smacking the beach. So my actor threw the wine bottle again. I asked my director of photography, "Amanda, did you get it?" She said, "Yes, it was beautiful." I said, "Awesome. Let's go back to the big rocks and set up for the next shot." My whole crew packed up and hiked over to the big rocks. Meanwhile, I'm wading into the ocean to retrieve the wine bottle. Because I don't want to pollute. And that wine bottle is really moving. I'm like, "Damn, I'm going to have to swim after it." So I started swimming. I used to be a strong swimmer. I could not catch up to this stupid wine bottle. And I look behind me, and I'm about 100 yards from the beach. "Oh my God," I said. And the wine bottle is still about 10 yards in front of me. So I chase it a little bit more. And then I give up. And I start swimming back to shore. I swim and I swim and I swim. And I'm not getting anywhere. And that's when it hits me. I'm in a rip tide. That's why I couldn't catch up to the wine bottle. That's why it's so hard swimming back to shore. I'm wearing jeans and a long-sleeve T-shirt. And my clothes are heavy, weighing me down. So I swim parallel to shore. That's what they say to do in a rip tide. Get out of the damn rip tide. And what I discovered is that when you stop swimming against the rip tide, it carries you further out to sea. So I'm swimming and swimming and swimming. My crew's all gone. I'm alone. I'm getting exhausted. And it hits me. I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to be able to swim out of this. And I hear this little voice. "See if you can touch bottom." It's ridiculous. I'm over 100 yards out, maybe 200 yards. There's no way I can touch bottom. And I heard it again. "See if you can touch bottom." So I stopped swimming, and I reached down to see if I could touch. And I found a sand dune under me. And I could stand on it. The water was up to my shoulders. But I could stand there and rest for a minute. I took a step forward, on the sand dune. I was worried I was going to walk right off the sand dune. And I took another step and another step. And I walked out of the ocean. What was impossible became easy as pie. The first lesson I learned was that you don't have to chase after things. And the second lesson was to listen to that little voice. If you're fighting an impossible battle, maybe if you change your perspective, see it in a different way, you can solve it. And that's my story.