The Husband had vacation last week - thus the lack of a post from me. We didn’t stay anywhere for the week, but had a really good time at home with a couple of day trips thrown in there. It just so happened that both trips we took were to ocean-themed places: the New England Aquarium and Ordiorne Point/Seacoast Science Center. Both the Boy and the Girl absolutely LOVED our trips - especially the sea creatures. Even at ten months, the Girl was enthralled with the fish as big as her swimming by and she couldn’t get enough of the penguins. The Boy loved the fish as well - but was most obsessed with the sea turtles. Both the Husband and I loved watching our children revel in this new world they had discovered.
This got me thinking: I absolutely love the ocean and the creatures that live in it. There was a time in my life that I really wanted to be a dolphin trainer. I think it was my first real ‘what I want to be when I grow up’ dream. You know, the first one after ‘president’ or ‘astronaut’.
So, yes. I wanted to train dolphins at Sea World when I was a teenager. I was smart enough to know that you don’t just go to ‘dolphin training’ school and assumed that meant I’d have to go to school for marine biology. Before I got to college, however, I realized the chances of me actually training dolphins at Sea World were slim to none. After that, all I could envision for my life with a degree in marine biology was field research - spending weeks on a boat and then coming home and begging corporations/businesses/government for sponsorship. I’m not sure why I didn’t think that there might be an in-between type job, but either way that sounded terrifying to me, so I gave up my dream for one a little more practical.
Music.
Those who know me know how well that turned out!
I got so caught up in my failure at pursuing music that I never really gave marine biology a thought when it all came crashing down. Well, that’s being gracious. It’s hard for something that never got off the ground to ‘come crashing down’.
Suffice it to say, I didn’t go back to my old dream. It honestly never occurred to me. I enrolled into college undeclared. I went to my first Gen Ed class - World History - and was so taken by the professor’s enthusiasm for the subject and amazed at how it was presented (you mean our assignment is to read people’s journals?! Awesome!) and the rest is, well, history.
I love history.
I majored in history.
I would never consider myself a history buff. Or geek. Or nerd.
I love being able to see how people thought. What drove them to make the decisions they did. How it affected those around them and the world at large. I have never been, nor do I ever expect to be one of those people that can discuss the finer points of the Battle of Gettysburg or tell you the exact (and, sadly, general) date something significant occured. I’m sure I knew it at one point. I’m sure I even got it right on a test in school. I just don’t have the memory for it. I can barely remember what date semi-significant events happened in my own life, much less those not pertaining to me.
Throughout college, I found myself awed and slightly jealous of my classmates who were history buffs and seemingly knew everything about whatever subject the professors were talking about. I knew the basics. Probably less. I avoided history throughout middle and high school, ironically. I didn’t like the writing, so I avoided it like the plague. In college, I knew what I had read for that class or was researching for my paper and that was about it. It seemed like all the other History Majors spent all their free time soaking up as much history as they could. They’d talk about the documentary they’d seen or history book they’d read. To be completely honest, the only documentary I will seek out to watch are ones about the ocean or sea life. I’ll watch others if they’re on or someone else is already watching one, but they just don’t interest me enough.
All that to say, going to the aquarium and Ordiorne Point this past week got me thinking. I love the ocean. Although I glad I went the History route in college and would never give up that experience and friendships I made along the way, there is a part of me that is sad I didn’t give marine biology a chance. There is a little part of me that still would like to test it out and see how it fits.
Maybe that’s what I’ll do when the kids grow up.
No comments:
Post a Comment