Chapter 5 - Knowing When to Make a Change

Monday kicked off with my regular routine - attending classes and sticking to my schedule. However, I decided to pay the fee and sign up for a gym. I haven’t been exercising as much as I need to feel good because the small room in the college was insufficient. I’m going in the mornings now before class, it is important for me to move my body before I sit in a classroom all day.

On Tuesday, I continued doing GIS. On Wednesday, while I was testing some water samples in the lab, a guest speaker was present and giving a presentation to other interns. She was presenting the catalog of whales she has identified in Kachemak Bay. She was giving advice to other students whose internship is identifying whales while learning to use cameras and AI to identify individuals.

I was very excited and curious after hearing this presentation. I couldn’t help but ask how I could also participate. They immediately took me on board. After discussing this with my GIS internship host, I will no longer be participating in that project, and I will now be focusing on whale identification. Although GIS is a valuable skill, I can learn it from my home university, while whale identification is impossible in Ohio.

Friday, I decided to refine my ecology research project. I will now only be doing water sampling for the proposed construction site instead of invertebrate sampling due to time constraints. I hope this project can continue once I leave Homer to continue monitoring the marshland and protecting it from any possible runoffs from the construction project. I will also now work with two of my peers, Jack and Kelsey, on another project, which is sampling and evaluating biodiversity in high-traffic and low-traffic areas in the harbor.

Saturday was a really exciting and birdy day! I went birding with the Kachemak Bay Birding Club; I saw 9 new species: Greater Scaup, Surf Scoter, White-winged Scoter, Black Scoter, Red-necked Grebe, Pigeon Guillemot, Red-throated Loon, Barrows Goldeneye, and Horned Grebe. I also captured a cool photograph of a harbor seal eating a yellowfin sole.

On Sunday, I saw a rare duck species: the Steller's Eiders. They are very strange-looking birds. I spent the day doing photography and preparing and reading for my classes.

Reflecting on the past week, I realize that knowing when to make a change is essential for personal growth and fulfillment. Through Northwaters and Langskib, the canoe program I have attended for the past three years, I’ve learned to work through challenging situations, I know how to put my head down and work hard to achieve something. The realization I had was that it's very important where in my life I choose to do that.