How I Got Here

Summer '09 - hard at work in my summer internship.
I'll get into those later.

My first post! As I have two weeks at home before moving south and getting into my new life, I thought I'd use this time to focus on my undergrad experiences and what I've learned.
So the obvious first question....how did I get here?

So, I grew up in DC...I know, not the best place to lear about marine life right? But anyways, I was always interested in science. Around pre-school/kindergarten, I decided that I was going to be a paleontologist (luckily that fell through, that requires studying geology o_0). I was immediately whisked away to the National Museum of Natural History for years to feed my curiosity (props to Ma for that!), and my dream stuck until I was nine and we visited my godparents in San Diego.

In San Diego, we visited - what else - Sea World. And as I told a friend, Shamu showed me the light. I don't know why exactly, but from then on I was hooked on marine life. I read a ridiculous amount of books on marine life at the public library and trips branched out to include the National Aquarium in Baltimore. In high school, I worked hard in science and math and took AP courses in both. The summer before my senior year, I interned at the local aquarium (that's right, y'all didn't know DC had an aquarium did you?) as an education docent, which really cemented my interests in marine science. And with that, I applied to marine science programs at five schools, four in Florida and one in South Carolina. Yes, I am not a fan of winters (well, I wasn't, I appreciate seasons much more now). I ended up at a school in Florida, and here I am four years later with a degree in hand and a new adventure in front of me.

I think I'll go into my college experience - specifically classes - tomorrow.