I would have been a marine biologist. When I was in elementary school I was completely obsessed with marine biology and ocean life. I think it started in fourth grade when we took a class trip to Sea Camp – three incredible days of snorkeling and learning about tropical fish and the like in Key Largo. We took a nighttime boat ride to collect plankton and spent an evening in a lab looking at them under a microscope – I loved it. We explored the mangrove trees and coral reefs and seagrass areas and John Pennekamp State Park, we saw angel fish and baracuda, and we slept in this big facility where one side was the girl’s bunk room and the other was the boy’s, and we stayed up late giggling and trying to sneak onto the boy’s side without the chaperones catching us. Even though I got completely homesick, as usual, and had my moments where I had to call my parents crying and ask them to come get me, they didn’t, and I stuck it out, and for the most part I only have fantastic memories of my time there.

I came home an expert on everything marine biology-related. My dad took me on another snorkeling trip one weekend to the Keys, and we often went to a local beach where they had a man-made reef you could swim out to from the shore. I got books from the library and learned about the different types of corals and sharks and I loved reading about sting and manta rays. My mom even “adopted a manatee” for me for Christmas – I had a picture of Lily the manatee and was so proud to have my own endangered sea-pet. I was still writing all the time but during those years my books were about whales who were in love, and there were other marine-themed titles like “Save the dolphins while a tragedy happens” (riveting!).

I think if I hadn’t found the path to writing and journalism that I would have been a marine biologist. I don’t have any regrets about the path I chose, but I often wonder what my life would have been like had I followed my childhood dreams… would I have really married a lifeguard named Mike (no joke- that was the name I had picked when I was 9), trained killer whales and lived in Barbie’s Malibu House on the beach?