Last Week

so much stuff happened last week :)
i got to see a harbor seal and dolphin necropsy in the NOAA lab next door.

This dolphin is missing a tail because it got caught in a fishing net. The fishermen.. unwilling to cut their net to let it loose.. instead cut off its tail to throw it back. I was the only undergrad at the necropsy, and the people let me cut off the dolphin's head, and take out one eye to do aging tests. I'm not gonna lie.. I was pretty excited to do that. It was weird though because it didn't register to me that it was a dolphin when I was cutting. It just seemed like a thing of meat which is sad because i <3 dolphins. I think the first time i saw a necropsy (of a sea turtle) there was so much blood, and organs were everywhere that it was pretty disgusting. this time, though, i think i was more used to it and desensitized and could really appreciate how everything in the body worked together and stuff. It was really interesting. It was also really cool how CSI-ish everything was, and what details they paid attention to. For example, they found about 40 menhaden (a small fish) in the seal's stomach and concluded that the fishermen probably discarded these as bycatch (cause they're too small) and the seal was probably just around to get the free meal because it'd be unlikely a seal could chase that many fish down in one meal.

In trying to decided on classes for next year, i met with a professor here to talk about possible marine science careers. he basically told me about 2 paths. one is a 2 year MEM program (marine environmental management) where you become a manager or something for fisheries and stuff like that. the other is a research track where you basically specialize in one area of marine science with a particular animal or group of animals. for that you need a masters/PhD so i still don't know what i'm gonna do with my life. It really hit me though about how I'm actually gonna have a career... I think i've been living in denial this whole time. I always assumed that if i had a family i'd be happy and never bothered to think that i'd be settling down with a career too. it scared me especially cause at this rate, i'll most definitely have a job before a family.. i need to get the order of events of my life together.

in other news, i decided to join the outreach team for IV next year and be a GiG leader for people i don't necessarily know. In my application i wrote that as a concern because i feel like i share the gospel best when i have already-established friendships with the people. When louisa called me to ask if i would be willing to do the GiG stuff, i told her i needed more time to think. I opened up the bible and chose a random book as if to ask God for a sign. Well, i started reading the first chapter of Romans. And you could say i got my "answer" at verses 14-17: "¹⁴I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. ¹⁵That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome. ¹⁶I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. ¹⁷For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

Basically it came to my attention that I need to be preaching the Gospel to everyone, not just my friends. It put me to shame how eager paul was to preach the Gospel, and how scared I was. Ok so then I fell asleep.. but when I woke up I called back to say yes. Now i'm heavily anticipating how next year will go. That also solved my unsure-ness of which track to do in rockbridge (good news track).

I've been enjoying a 4-day weekend so far though so that's be AWESOME. i went fishing again (still didn't catch anything) i think the adult fish are still in warmer waters. The water is now bearable to stand in though. I can't wait until they're swimming temperatures. On monday they're letting us start to use the kayaks, so that's super exciting. And even more exciting, i'll be headed to trinidad on the 19th to work with leatherback sea turtles and other turtles. I'll be leaving from RDU which means i'll prob be around chapel hill/duke that weekend seeing that I wont have class on friday for that block either. This block (and all of its reading) end next wednesday, i'm super excited!