by Dear Reader,
It’s hard to imagine that the past three days have been a reality; much less that they truly were only three short days. In this stretched time, I’ve questioned my surroundings more times than I ever had before. Often, I ask myself whether there is a miscommunication between my eyes and my mind. Reality can’t possibly be what’s in front of me. Since landing at the Anchorage airport, I’ve been walking in a dream, where I’ve been able to experience things I never imagined myself doing this summer. At the age of 20, I’m far away from home. Barring the mind-blowing and beautiful personal experiences I’ve had with my ever-changing surroundings, I’ve had the privilege of hearing lectures from field professionals who, despite only knowing for a short time, I look up to as mentors. Because of the particularly interesting time I spent in the lab with Dr. Joe Montoya, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, I started researching a subject I never thought to study before, amphipods. They are a type of plankton that I have been studying up on with rigor, ignited by the outcome of a plankton study done in the science lab on the Sikuliaq. The casting of a plankton net left us with several exciting samples to observe under a microscope, many of which I have never seen before. Joe fed my curiosity by identifying one of these plankton as an amphipod, and I latched onto that term. I asked him questions and checked the ship’s library for resources to learn more about them.
This is only the latest example of the many ways in which my mentors inspire me to broaden my horizons. Not only have I explored areas of my current college path that I did not have previous knowledge of, but I have also reopened myself to academic territory that I didn’t expect myself to journey back to geological oceanography. Being on the Sikuliaq, I’ve learned that the trajectory a person takes is the farthest thing from predictable. The experiences I’ve been granted by this program are valuable to me in more ways than one. I’m writing this blog post from a decked-out science lab on a mega ship in the Pacific Ocean. You really can’t get better than that.
Love,
Sam Gatuz
