The Great Barrier Reef

Leaving the comfort of Gilligan’s, Julia and I embarked on our two day adventure to the reef on the Rum Runner Liveaboard. My friend Kylie highly recommend this boat because it takes you to the more active parts of the reef for a pretty decent price. Trusting her marine biology expertise, we dragged ourselves out of bed at 5:45am, put on our double backpacks, and walked down to the pier, excited for our adventure.

I started off my college education pursuing a degree in marine biology, but as chemistry classes weighed me down, I realized I would excel most as an environmental studies major. However, my love for the ocean never faded, and every time my environmental classes allowed me to choose a topic to research, I would always choose the Great Barrier Reef. In my three years of college, I have written dozens of pages on ocean acidification and coral bleaching, so I guess you could say I was pretty stoked to finally get to see everything I’ve studied in real life.

Soon enough, we were making way towards the reef. As the clouds rolled in, the small boat rocked from side to side, getting pushed by every wave and gust of wind. Overestimating the strength of my stomach, I chose not to buy motion sickness pills beforehand, so I spent the entire three hour boat ride gripping the rails, staring out ahead, and clenching my teeth to hold down anything that might potentially come up. Surprisingly, I was stronger than some of the others who spent their morning puking overboard. After what seemed like a lifetime, the boat slowed down and it was time to gear up.

I have been Open Water Scuba Certified since 2016, but I haven’t gone in over a year, so I was a little nervous that I would forget how to breathe underwater and explode or something. And of course, knowing my luck, I caught a cold the week before our trip. Although I whipped myself into shape, I was scared my ears would not adjust well to the pressure underwater. However, I put on my 50lbs of gear and jumped off the boat.

Our first dive was on the Labyrinth Moore Reef. It was exactly how I had pictured it. My knowledge hadn’t failed me whatsoever. Although the reef was still teeming with life, I was able to pinpoint the exact spots that were affected by climate change. I saw the completely bleached white staghorn coral, alongside the fluorescent purples, blues, and greens its relatives exhibited as their last hope to protect themselves from the rising water temperatures. I saw sides of the reef that were completely destroyed from tropical cyclones, alongside the healthy parts that were saved from the storm. It was heartbreaking, but it was also incredible to be able to see everything I have studied with my own eyes. Moments like these are when putting yourself through the torture of all-nighters in the library finally pay off.

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A delicious pb&j later, we were onto our next reef, Manta Ray Bay. Ever since watching Racing Extinction in high school (please watch it, its one of my favorite environmental movies) I have dreamed of diving with a manta ray. They are such elegant and majestic creatures, but sadly, they are really rare to see nowadays. However, I did get the chance to hang out with a sea turtle for at least five minutes and saw even more incredible wildlife.

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Hours later, I was in the water once again, this time at the East Timor Moore Reef. Out of all of the divers I’ve talked to, even the most experienced have only had a few “surreal” dives. For me, it was this one. Forty feet underwater, I flipped onto my back and just swam. As I watched my bubbles slowly float up the coral wall, I felt so small but so connected to the earth and to life. It was just me and the ocean. I was one with the sea. For these few moments, I was at peace, which is not something I am able to feel every day. It was beautiful, raw, and unforgettable.

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Once the sun had set, we geared up for the night dive. Sadly, I made it all but 2 feet underwater until my ears could no longer equalize. My cold had finally caught up to me. Frantically jiggling my flashlight to signal to my buddy that my ears were giving out, I surfaced and swam through the pitch black murky waters to the safety of my boat. Climbing aboard, I was welcomed to a late night singalong guitar session.

After a long sweaty night in our tiny bunk beds, Julia and I got a personal wake up call from our new best friend and dive master trainee, Caitlin, saying we were supposed to be in the water in five minutes. To protect my ears from any damage, I snorkeled for the rest of the day, while Julia finished up her five introductory dives (an amazing opportunity if you aren’t certified). Thankfully, the reef was just as beautiful from above, and my ears felt better the next day.

Although I lost my hydroflask to the reef, I gained so much more. The people I met on the boat opened my eyes to a lot about life that I believe our society forgot long ago: how to truly live the life we want without crumbling to the pressures of others expectations. As we turn eighteen years old, we are suddenly expected to have life figured out. We become bombarded with questions of colleges, majors, and careers. Then nearing the end of college, the questions automatically become: “What are you going to do with an environmental studies degree? Are you going to graduate school? Where do you want to work after college?” Why do we need to know now? Is it because society expects us to know, or because we actually want to know? On this boat, it hit me. Most people I meet while traveling ask where life is taking me next, and where my next adventure is…not this torrential rapid fire of questions about plans most people cannot even figure out until after their midlife crisis. This change in perspective struck Julia and me with a surprise. Maybe this is whats wrong with our society. Maybe we need to think of life as an adventure, and where this personal adventure will carry us next. While at sea on the Rum Runner, I was surrounded by inspirational people. Cassandra finished her undergrad and masters, then decided it was time to experience the world by traveling for a year and living on a tiny boat in hopes of becoming a dive master. Gee had a successful corporate job for years, quit it all to follow his passion and become a dive instructor. Spencer fell in love with diving on vacation, then left his Kansas home to live on a boat on the other side of the world. None of them were thinking of their lives as a fixed process of careers and success ladders. They are out here chasing their passions and dreams, totally and completely unapologetically. I am not saying that getting an education or having career goals is a bad thing, but I now realize that we should think of life as one great adventure, by changing our mindset from this chain of stressful questions into a storyline of our own choosing. We are not bound to one career path, lifestyle, or location for the rest of time, we have our entire lives to try, and to fail, at whatever comes along.

Personally, this made me realize that no matter how far and wide my potential environmental career interests span, I need to chase my passions, instead of pushing them under a blanket of what ifs and I cant’s, just because they don’t fit the expectations of my imaginary life construct. I now still dream to one day be a part of creating an environmental documentary, to pursue marine conservation, to teach people about environmental health, and to do anything else that strikes my fancy along the way. Because in the end, success only goes as far as your own happiness.