Into a tide

Water has been an obsession ever since I was given my first swimming lesson.....the little red and black bathing suit...the sight of a big blue pool...and the idea of spending an entire hour with my cousin... me being the center of his attention( serious hoping...I know...but I was 4!!)....seemed soo much fun....I waded, splashed and kicked around in the baby pool...15 mins or so into my excursion( as far as I remember) I looked to the other side...over the big wall and toward the big pool... I saw this magnificent creature gliding on the water....its long strong arms powerfully pulling the rest of its body across the vast expanse of clear blue water...
...I knew....somehow...but I knew that I had to have a life associated with water....
Over the next few years I was trained to swim...though I never got to be the next Ian Thorpe or Michel Phelps, I learnt how to move in the water...how to swim gracefully across the length of a pool without drowning!!...I had my share of completions- won a few, lost some others but yea...I knew how to swim n that was what was important to me!....then sometime during my time in the 9th grade...a man from the rotract club( I wish I remembered his name cause I owe him a lot appreciation for showing me how to fulfill my dream) came to school to give us a lecture on career options...we walked into the lecture hall bored and uninterested just as most kids that age are about future careers.....however something happened during that 2 hour talk...something he said made me sit up and listen..." you should have a job you're interested in...not one you're just plain good at". He talked to us about how we should take our biggest dreams and make it our career... and that’s when the whole "I want to become an oceanographer" phase of my life started....