Kelp Project 5/15/2021

Octopus moving into the new Column design

New Column design

Octopus hanging out near established holdfast

Holdfast and Opalescent Nudibranch (Hermissenda opalescens)

Kelp being dragged down to just above the sea floor due to currents.

Kelp recruit establishing on a worm tube

Slender Crab (Cancer gracilis)

Slender crab burrowed

 

My time during Quarantine

 

Pre-Covid

Almost 16 months in

 

 

Finally cut the rona mullet

 

Here comes a personal post. This one is for me. I really don't care if it comes off as gloating because this is my blog and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who looks at it.

Covid became a serious inflection point in my life. I had ambitions and stuff going on but I was reluctant to set my sights higher and actually apply myself. In no other time in my life did I have a drive like I did when I saw this time as a time to improve.

 I started Covid learning that I had two job interviews that went sour. I didn't prepare for them at all and felt like I had squandered a serious opportunity. These weren't dream jobs but ones that would move me along my chosen career path. I stewed over this missed chance for a while... but the first lockdown came a knocking and I quickly saw this as a blessing. The jobs were diving jobs and with the pandemic I wouldn't have dove or really worked on more important endeavors anyways. Quarantine started to kick in and I saw myself falling into bad habits. Wake up, smoke, work, smoke, play video games, smoke, repeat. I was pretty depressed. I saw how this country let me down with so many peoples flagrant attitude toward the whole pandemic. I knew I needed serious change and by the end of this contagion I was going to be better.

I was consigned to an uncomfortable retail job that only got worse with the pandemic. Customers were rude, management was apathetic at best, and childish drama made working life a bit of a nightmare. I dreaded going into work. There quickly became a situation that only confirmed a long held belief I had. I'm keeping things vague but, in essence, I was given an opportunity to take 2 weeks off and use that time to find something better.

I was persistent and looked everywhere. I was about to do anything to get out of my current situation. Luckily I was given a wonderful opportunity with way better pay to work with an old friend of mine, Troy White, and I jumped on it. I was told I would be given 10-20 hours but was encouraged to work more. I did 40 almost every week because I had never been made such a living in my life. My work was good and I asked for constant feedback, asked questions I would normally be too timid to ask, and picked up new skills that helped me with the next huge stage in my life. I was quickly made a full time staff member (officially) and was promoted not long after. This was the first job that valued my skills, input, and work ethic and rewarded me for it. I really saw what working for a great boss looked like.

During this time I still remained loyal to my marine science passion projects. My paper was still in review and there simply wasn't anything I could do to expedite it on my front. I began researching for the sake of learning new things. I took an R coding class to attempt to build my computer skills. I asked mentors for reading material and came back with questions. I asked for more work. I filled up my time and to this day I pretty busy but I'm managing to keep it together. 

I finally saw a real chance. I came across a recent paper about artificial reefs. It was from Japan and the author had just finished his study there. I contacted the author of this paper who kindly answered my questions and then referred me to his advisor in Japan. After a bit of email tag and a couple contacted professors later, I was talking to Professor Reiji Masuda from Kyoto University. Reiji and I hit it off (at least I felt it on my end) and stayed in constant contact until I asked the question about graduate school. I had been contemplating graduate school for a while as I had learned how fulfilling it was to write my first paper. Reiji graciously invited me to join his lab in Maizuru, Japan.

By now I was star struck, giddy, and had this motivation I had not had for anything else in my life until this point. I didn't just want to get in... I NEEDED to get in. I made sure to keep in touch with Reiji and even put myself out there to other lab people. I asked for reading materials and learned of the awesome new technology surrounding environmental DNA and its possible applications. After a while graduate school applications started opening up. I was already well prepared but it was crunch time. I spent most of my free time and even put off sleeping some nights until I knew I could be confident in my application. January came around and just before finalizing my application I was given a task by my professor to help another student with the English in her paper. I made the time to review it and turn it around quickly, but thoroughly, reviewed. It was around this time I had also learned that my own paper had been published and I was finally being recognized for my hard work in marine science.

About a month later, and a few strong drinks to settle my nerves, I received the news. 

I... was... accepted!

I was going to be leaving California to live somewhere I had never been. I had done this before moving to Santa Cruz for my undergraduate degree but never really felt like I had left. This will be a total leap of faith but hey... what is life without some risk? 

I'm going to take what I learned in Covid and become the best damn researcher for myself. I going to research what interests me and it may not all be recognized in the way I want it... but I know I will enjoy it and my support network of friends, family, and mentors will too. If Covid has taught me anything is that you can take a shitty situation and flip it on itself. I can safely say I thrived during this time and will be heading off into the wild blue yonder come September. Thank you to everyone who supported me and here's a couple photos of the gross ass long hair I grew cause Great Clips or Super Cuts or whatever went out of business locally and I decided "ehh... fuckit" and let it go long. 

So anyways, cheers to the future and may it be as gracious to you as it has been for me. 

A year ago today I was at one of the lowest points in my life.... Quarantine

Now... Things couldn't be better.