A Sincere Apology

As some of you may have noticed, I have not been posting much over the last few days. For that, I would like to apologize. The beginning of my second year at UCLA is rapidly approaching, and so recently, much of my time has been devoted to a number of school-related activities. Along with packing and dealing with move-in logistics, I have also been working on creating a curriculum vitae and preparing cover letters for applying for lab positions. Not only are preparing these things rather stressful and time-consuming, they also require a bit of writing, so I have had little extra time and/or desire to do extra writing.

However, fear not! I am hoping to have my letters all completed and sent off by this weekend, so I will likely be putting out some new posts next week! Hooray! And I will have lots to write about with so many things going on and coming up (applying to get into an awesome lab, getting my passport for ANTARCTICA and TAHITI, being excited about The Daily Ocean, etc...). Until then, please be patient and check out how adorable this polar bear is!

Photograph by Paul Nicklen, from NationalGeographic.com

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/photos/polar-bears1/#/polar-bear-wet_667_600x450.jpg

Do What You Love

Picking a path, an educational and career path, is difficult. There are so many things that we are taught by our society to take into consideration. In what career will I be the most successful, financially? What job will bring me the most prestige? The most status?

While mulling over all of these considerations, it is very easy to lose track of what ACTUALLY matters when choosing a path. And that is selecting an area to study that is interesting to you and that you enjoy, and that will eventually lead to getting you a job that you love. When I first started at UCLA, I had completely lost sight of this all-important consideration. So I spent weeks upon weeks wandering to my classes, bouncing between plans of medical school, psychology, and whatever else fit my mood. Nothing seemed to stick. So I just kept trying out new paths.

Then, one evening as I sat at my computer watching House, I heard a small pop that indicated a Facebook chat. Switching windows, I saw that my cousin Tristan had sent me a link. Not recognizing the website, I hesitated for a second, thinking it may have been a hack. But then Tristan followed up with a message, reassuring me that the video was amazing and inspiring and that I just had to stop and take the time to watch it. So I watched it. And I am so very glad that I did.

This video, featuring a short talk and then some video footage by surf photographer Mickey Smith, is an awesome illustration of how doing what you love is really the key to a fulfilling life and a life that you can be happy with. It inspired me to contemplate what I am most passionate about. What my mind was immediately drawn to was my high school marine biology class and the trips that I took with that class to Catalina Island and the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. Those experiences were life-changing for me because they solidified my love and fascination with nature, especially marine life. So with the messages from this video spinning around my head, and the memories of my amazing experiences at Catalina and OPI refreshed in my brain, I came to the conclusion that by studying marine biology, I would be giving myself the opportunity to spend my life studying and working with what I love. So that is what I decided to do.

I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did. And thank you Tristan and Mr. McBride.

Do The Things You Love by Mickey Smith

On My Way To New Coasts

Hello everyone and welcome to my new blog! During my first year at UCLA, I have spent hours pondering and deliberating what sort of direction I want to take with my education. I started out thinking medicine, and then changed my plan to psychology. But neither of those options really felt right to me. After taking an ecology class winter quarter, and then an oceanography class during the spring, I was lucky enough to stumble upon what does feel right; and that is pursuing a degree in marine biology. Since my decision to study marine biology, I have also chosen to minor in both conservation biology and atmospheric and oceanic science.

One of the crazy, awesome things about going to a university like UCLA is the phenomenal amount of opportunities that being a part of their academic community allows you to access. And it is these opportunities that have inspired me to create this blog. During spring quarter of 2014, I will be lucky enough to spend several weeks in Tahiti to get a taste for conducting my own field research. A few months before that, at the tail end of December 2013 and into January 2014, I am striving to be a part of an expedition to Antarctica, alongside other students and faculty from UCLA and a handful of other universities. I am so thrilled to have these opportunities available to me and I hope that they are only the beginning of career in marine science that is riddled with chances to experience nature at its most beautiful and most untouched. So here is to the beginning of my new journey, on my way to experiencing new coasts.