The way outdoor media portrays outdoor recreation is 1) with predominantly white folks 2) doing activities that many communities of color do not have access to. Outdoor magazines, commercials, advertisements, and videos have long led people to believe that outdoor recreation is limited to high dollar activities such as mountaineering, snowboarding, rock climbing, mountain biking, and backpacking in remote locations far removed from everyday life and everyday budgets for most working families. The reality is they also lied.

Today I’m prepared to tell the truth about how I was raised in the outdoors and have never been far from it since.

I grew up in a working class community with my mom, sisters, nieces and nephews. My mom didn’t have a lot of disposable income for vacations. Fortunately we were blessed to live in south Florida. I loved the outdoors. I spent a lot of time outside at a beach with a whimsical name, Lauderdale by the Sea, and at my local neighborhood park, West Wind Park.

Lauderdale by the Sea, is a small local seashore where residents can escape the hustle and bustle of nearby Fort Lauderdale beach. There is a fishing pier, great waves and a small coral reef—enough to attract scores of swimmers, surfers, fisherman, and divers. The beach is frequented by local families, who come with their children to experience the water, salt, wind and waves. I spent a lot of time there sitting on my towel as I watched the waves crash against the shore. I would alternate swimming and attempting to stand up on my skim board—a gift from my mom that she purchased from a garage sale in a rich neighborhood. It was a space where I could go to celebrate and be happy. It was also a refuge for those times that I felt depressed, overwhelmed or stressed at home. Sometimes I would go there at night, to watch the moon as it floated in the dark sky, and search the sand with the faint hope that I might encounter a sea turtle laying her eggs. I never did though.