The ocean has played a huge role in my mothers life and mine. The connection started when she was just a kid and every couple of years my grandparents would take my mom and her sister on trips to Puerto Rico. There, they would stay in some cheap hotel and walk to the beach every morning. My mom recalls playing in the waves for hours everyday and swallowing A LOT of salt water. To get the taste out of her mouth, my grandma would let her and her sister share a sprite and a bag of m&ms. But despite the unusual taste and scent of the ocean, my mom would stay at the beach until the late evening. She loved watching the fish swim by and hearing the rough waves crash at the shore. These moments are what inspired her to become a marine biologist. She wanted to protect this haven that she found at a very early age, and by the time she had me, over 30 years later, her career in marine habitat restoration had inspired me to also protect our oceans. Even though I don’t want to be a marine biologist when I’m older, I can always appreciate the beach and fight to conserve its beauty.