When I was 9, I went out on a boat for the first time. It was a year of extreme storms in Northern California. The valleys flooded for the first time in 30 years, and ancient lakes, once lost to drought, refilled. I collected samples from the ocean, and looked at them under the microscope. The water was filled with tiny crawling, grabbing creatures. They were made my damp skin feel itchy.
When I was 18 years old, I went out to see again, to watch gray whales migrating from Alaska to Mexico. I took this video, and I watch it sometimes, when I’m at home, thinking about the ocean.
-