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What a journey it has been! I cannot believe I had told Sydney—one of the three mentors—that I was excited for the fifteen to twenty foot waves we were expecting to navigate through. Instead there have barely been any waves and I have been sleeping the seasickness off for the past four days. Today I actually took a six hour nap, which is a record for me. It has actually been an ongoing joke with some of the other undergraduates and I. We count all thirteen of us in the meetings to see who is missing. When we were all able to make it down to the main deck, we look around and take note of who is falling asleep during the lectures and activities.
Yet while we are all going through the motions of the RV Langseth, there are moments where we are all awake and are able to make what seems to be a lifetime of memories. I will always remember how our time aboard the Langseth brought thirteen people from all over the United States in one place as a sort of temporary family at sea. We fell asleep one by one, made our way through the maze-like-hallways without crashing into walls, ate together in the mess hall, helped each other out in our bad moments, and laughed among ourselves and the rest of the crew. Today we actually recaptured a buoy from NOAA. We were higher up on the boat cheering on Sasha and Norely while they pulled up the buoy with the help of the crew.
During the times I am awake and functioning, it has been so fun to get to know the rest of the science crew. We even befriended the cooks and they are a part of our sea family as well. These memories will stick with me as I continue my own journey through life. The biggest lesson I have learned from this is that we are all different and that is what strengthens us. We rise together or fall together. I will be sad to see this temporary family dissolve once we arrive in San Diego.
– Gloria Renaudin
