Alex (UR) OBSESSED with our oceans!!

                                                          

Cabo San Lucas

Hello all,

  The ocean is my happy place, I can't tell you many times I get out on a boat that I don't get all warm and fuzzy inside and almost start to laugh because I'm SO darn excited when I'm out there, honestly can't explain it much more than that. Every year I would go to Cabo and go out deep sea fishing (LOVE deep sea fishing) I sit at the front of the boat the entire ride out and in, its my favorite place to be when I'm out there, I just get lost in my own little world. :)

It all started in 6th grade when I lived in Arizona, I took a class trip to the Catalina Islands off the coast of California, called CIMI (Catalina Island Marine Institute). I became fascinated by the ocean so I then went on the Orca trip in 8th grade as well which then continued to feed me interest. Ive dreamt of the ocean ever since then and decided it was time to move somewhere that made more sense....I've watched many documentaries on our oceans, fished all over the place, learned to dive(soon to have my certification), gone to tons of aquariums, & stopped loving Seaworld along the way. Now is the time that I'm finally starting to follow my dreams and do something that I truly love. 

        

I'm quite the dolphin whisperer

 When you are growing up, everyone around you is always saying "follow your dreams", "do what you love" until you say something like "I want to be a marine biologist." Its always either that blank stare followed by "you'll never make any money doing that?!" or the " WOW, that's so cool! I love seaward." I usually just laugh and tell them I wasn't interested in the money part of it and I was also told that when you're doing what you love and the money will follow. I can honestly say that I would rather be giving it my best shot and saying I tried than be sitting in an office cubicle day dreaming about the ocean all day. I love learning new things everyday about the ocean and all the life within it.  I'm still trying to find out what my niche will be in this field but I know that I'm interested in shark tagging, saving sea turtles, coral reef restoration, and the Global warming effects on our oceans. One of these topics will be what my IRP will be based on as well. I am so excited to be apart of this class and can't wait to see if it will guide me in the right direction of where I want to be in this field.