Beep, beep, beep... "just the sound I want to hear early on a summer morning," said no teenager ever. But this time was different. I went to bed excited to hear the default iPhone alarm ring in just a few hours. It was our first ever full family vacation, aunts, uncles, cousins, the whole shebang, all 24 of us in one house for a whole week.

Days were busy as everyone found fun and different ways to enjoy the beautiful weather, but dinner was time for everyone to be together. That was my grandpa's favorite part— he could he could enjoy a delicious homemade meal and everyone being together. He could also embrace everyone's unique and special personality, which is his favorite thing about the family.

Laying on the top bunk of the bed on the first night in the "girls' room" with my three younger cousins in the room, I set my alarm for 5:15 A.M. What felt like a few quick minutes, yet a full night's sleep later, my alarm went off. I quickly shut it off, quietly got dressed, and tactically tiptoed out of the room so I wouldn't wake the youngsters. I went down the wood stairs of this mansion of a beach house in Sandbridge, Virginia that we rented to spend the week together in celebration of my grandparents' 50th anniversary.

I stepped out the back door, and within four steps on the concrete, my bare feet touched the cool morning sand. The sun was still hidden behind the horizon, but the sky was all types of radiant colors, and soon enough, the hot pink sun began to peek out. I go to a beach on the east coast every year, sometimes even twice a year, yet it wasn't until I was 18 that I saw my first ever sunrise on the beach. There was a bit of regret flowing through my mind when I first saw it wishing I had seen this beauty before because it is really quite remarkable.

Accompanying me to appreciate the stunning sunrise on the empty beach early in the morning was my grandpa. I snapped a few quick pictures, but he was focused on his phone making his best effort, using all of his grandpa-like technology skills, to take a good picture of the color filled sky. I ended up just sending him the ones that I effortlessly took, which frankly didn't do the beauty justice either. Thinking I captured what I wanted, I began to head back towards the house. I was intending to hop back into bed and catch a few more precious hours of sleep before a busy day on with my cousins on the beach, but my grandpa called me back. He told me to come back and just look.

I slipped my phone into my pocket and stood side by side with my grandpa. We stared at the sky, both astonished by the colors filling the sky, realizing seeing it was better than a picture could ever capture. Intrigued by the way the clouds seemingly changed colors from pink to red to yellow as time passed and the beam of orange light reflecting off the ocean from the rising sun, I became aware of the warm ocean breeze through my unbrushed, bed-head style hair. I became aware of a lot: The hungry seagulls swooping towards the water to catch their breakfast. The best smell in the world, the salty ocean air. The peaceful silence that never truly exists on the beach as the waves crash on the shore. The quick little crabs, which we spent hours catching and releasing in red Solo Cups the night before, crawling back into their holes for the day. Overall, just realizing I was witnessing something beautiful in the present, and I was loving it.

Grandpa and I walked down the beach for a while, right along the edge where the sand is wet and stiff from the water and your foot barely sinks into the sand to leave a footprint. Your feet get wet only from the few waves that make it that high. Chatting about random stuff, as high school just ended and I was preparing for this crazy new thing called college. We were enjoying each other's presence, and just happy to be enjoying life. When I asked him what is the crucial ingredient to true happiness he said, "Enjoy life every day, and don't take yourself too seriously."

Happily walking back into the house after the sun had risen, I understood that it was impossible for my phone to capture what I just experienced with my grandpa. I woke up with the intentions of taking a picture that would last forever on my phone, but instead, my grandpa encouraged me to capture something with my heart. To appreciate what I get to live, in the present, because it can be far more powerful and memorable than a picture could ever be. That morning was way better living it in the present then than it would have been hours later from a picture on a phone screen. The next morning I woke up all the girls when my alarm went off, and we had a granddaughters and grandpa sunrise watch party.