My biggest wish deep down inside my little heart is to float. Just to float freely with the waves, listening to their ebb and flow. There's no responsibility inside the ocean waves, they just come and go, over and over. That's exactly how I wish to live my life, free of worry or responsibility, and to just.. float along the ocean of life. The feeling of freedom is fleeting and strived for by everyone. I found my freedom in the ocean, just the thought of it. The blue surrounding me as I drift away, I feel free. Though I feel free- I’m also struck by a massive wave of wonder. The view from underwater is something I never thought I’d see. The pattern of water above me when I look at the top of my pool as I sink myself to the bottom, it’s beautiful. The sun’s rays make me feel warmer when I float in the cold water. It's a feeling so captivating that It’s hard to put into words. 

 My pool isn’t endless and I can’t keep floating there forever, but the vast blue ocean is never-ending; and surrounds the Earth we all live on. Life started in that endless blue world; the same world I wish life had stayed in. To live in an environment that is so beautiful and treacherous that we haven’t found it all out just yet. The ocean is calming, full of color, while also being mysterious and so deep with secrets. I’d love to live in that mysterious blue world teeming with life like we’ve never seen before on land. I sound like the reverse “Little Mermaid”, but that's where all these thoughts came from. I witnessed a world on screen that I’d never known existed, yet was so close to me. As a kid, I never knew how much my favorite Disney princess would change my life. I didn’t notice how it changed me as I grew up, not even when I went to an aquarium and cried as I held on to the wall to keep myself from leaving. I didn’t think a thing when I tried to swim exactly like a dolphin for all those years in the pool. I just thought it was something I did, it didn’t connect to anything. But nearing my teens I realized it did mean something. I wanted to devote my life to the ocean, to save it, to find out its secrets, and to understand the beautiful life inside it. 

I realized how different it was from land and how much that fascinated me. Birds fly swiftly in the sky like fish swim in the water, but they look and behave so differently. Fish have smaller brains, but they don’t need to think much since their life is so simple. While dolphins that live along with the fish have brains rivaling us humans and live a complicated lifestyle. The ocean is a completely different world but it’s right next to us, right under our noses. We still know so little about the sea, and unfortunately are watching it die at our fingertips. I decided from a young age I didn’t like what we humans were doing; destroying all the life that came before us. As angry as it makes me, it motivates me as well to keep moving forward so I can save it. As soon as I realized my goal to save our oceans, I donated birthday money to organizations and studied ways I can help in my own little way. Whether it helped or not, it brings me joy to know I was trying. I still donate now when I can, and stay environmentally conscious quite a bit. To me, it’s kind of funny that I look at the ocean as a place where I can get rid of all my worries and responsibilities. Because the ocean IS my responsibility.