The journey is over, and we have been back home for almost a week! Although this experience wasn’t exactly easy all of the time, I am forever grateful for the opportunity to travel, learn, and form new connections with peers and professors. I learned a lot over the last two weeks, and not just about marine biology. I learned so much about myself and some of the life skills and discipline I need to hone, in order to be happy and somewhat successful in this world.
I do feel I experienced a lot of personal growth on this trip. Two weeks on an island with twenty people I just met and without too much connection to the outside world gave me a lot of time to think. I took a lot of time to think about what I want my life to look like after graduation, how I want to live, where I want to be, and the people I want to su
rround myself with. I realized many of the skills I needed to further develop in order to have a happy life after this experience. Many of those I got to practice on this trip, such as self-sustainability, adapting in less than ideal conditions, and gratitude.
I do feel that cultural immersion was a big part of this experience, since most of us were not prepared to live like the locals on San Salvador Island. This aspect of the experience really opened my eyes to how sheltered we are from the real world and gave me a newfound appreciation for the simplicity of life and how happy it can be. Yes, this cultural immersion led to beautiful discoveries, but it was difficult to adjust to at first. Between the constant irritation from bug bites and the sun and heat exposure, it was harder for some of us to adapt than others. But towards the end of the trip, I feel a lot of us had come to appreciate all of that discomfort.
I gained a lot of once in a lifetime academic insight throughout this trip. It was amazing to be able to learn firsthand out in the field every day for two weeks. I probably will never be able to snorkel amongst so many coral reefs again in my life, although a lot of them were in the process of dying. So much damage is being done to this planet that our kids will probably never see ocean life as beautiful and colorful as what we have seen the last two weeks, so I am incredibly grateful I got this opportunity. It was amazing to see all of this, but it is also very depressing to see the state of death that we have inflicted on this planet. This experience has inspired me to try my best to live as simply and sustainably as possible. I have also been inspired to continue practicing science with the hopes of making some sort of environmental difference in the way we affect this planet.
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