The lessons of sea
can be distinctly different from those on land. Sometimes, what we see will be
more important than how we see it.
One morning, sitting at the point, we had five minutes of
silence to simply observe what was happening around us. Discussing what we
noticed as a group afterwards, everyone picked up on something different. Only
all together could we begin to make sense of our surroundings. I couldn’t focus
my attention on one thing for too long, wanting to take in the entirety of the
setting; I wanted to see the big picture, how everything fit together. Others zeroed
in on the currents, others on the bird patterns, and others still on the seals.
Without all of our eyes together, we wouldn’t have seen the bay in the same way.
That day, we began the process of relying on one another to bring individual
perspective to our collective experience.
It’s now been 5 weeks since we first walked onto the Hopkins
campus. I distinctly remember sitting on
the 3rd floor of Agassiz, the building that would become our home, mind racing
with questions of what I was doing in this course and who I would become at the
end of this journey. As if anticipating these very thoughts, Barb started off
the morning reading us the first page of the journal she kept during her SEA
experience as an undergrad. That was a moment I won’t forget. Expressing many
of the same concerns and excitement many of us probably felt, the sense of
community formed. Discussing WHY we would embark on a voyage like this one
encouraged all of us to frame the voyage as an opportunity for personal growth
– physically, mentally, and intellectually.
I think I speak for everyone in saying this is an experience
we won’t be able to recreate. Already, it has been an opportunity to engage our
hands and minds simultaneously, an opportunity to connect deeply with a group
of 20 other students, and an opportunity to go beyond our comfort zones in
order to become better versions of ourselves. With everyone taking the same
classes, we define our experiences together by what we are learning. Our
classes constantly in communication with one another, discussions are that much
richer.
These 5 weeks went by faster than any of us could have
anticipated. We learned how to navigate with both lines of position and
celestial bodies, observed weather patterns, perfected (?) safety protocols,
began to grasp the complexity of oceanography, and explored the cultural
history of the places we will visit. Each of us crafted a research project to
complete while aboard the ship. They range from corals to water masses, from
plastics to squids, to sharks, and to tuna hearts; all of these projects
together will define our shipboard experience. With (almost) all of the
equipment packed up for the boat, we are just about ready to embark!
-Lindsay Allison
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