Every summer, I'm taken back to the ocean because I become that twelve-year-old who loved collecting sand dollars from those sandy shores. I was clueless until I saw the life on the underside of the thin shell—small sea creatures clinging to the gray shell, peeking their little heads out to see me. That's when I fell in love with sea life. That same day, a woman came up to me and took the sand dollar, offering to toss it, but instead she concealed it in a plastic bag and walked away with it. Now time has me wondering: if life sprouts from all corners of the earth, and the smallest lifeforms have even smaller lifeforms on them... why do we also conceal it in something that'll clearly kill it? Why do we persist in doing wrong to our oceans for our own selfish gain... and what happens when we are too late to save these lifeforms, and they're just taken away from us because of empty promises? After our oceans are gone, what is left for us? I care about the oceans because the vast seas are what put air in my lungs; this very body of mine is 60% a part of that sea, and billions, trillions- countless other creatures rely on the oceans as their forever home. Just like how my millions of cells rely on water to grow, produce, keep me walking and living, so many creatures also live in that very same water, and as soon as we take advantage of that, we hurt ourselves in the process. Every day, an oil drill is running and releasing carbon in our atmosphere... all of that oil is then burned with our transportation to get to work and to get back home... For our foods... etc. All of that is burning gigatons after gigatons of Carbon, weakening our ozone and warming up our oceans. These drastic environmental changes make it difficult for creatures of the sea to live in their environment comfortably. Those sea creatures are exactly what I would want to protect with my Marine Sciences Degree. Just like many other Environmental Heroes, I would spread the word about our oceans and do my due diligence to tell everyone that our Oceans need an impact starting with our generation until the next. Helping these sea creatures not only benefits our seas but will also help us in the long run. I've always been told that everything is connected and life moves differently for many. I want to move through my life by changing theirs with my degree. I want to be that person on the beach who shows that child that, instead of clinging to something that has its own home, we should always choose what's best for it. That is releasing it to their home, ridding the beach of its surface pollution, and going on to do even bigger things, joining causes that keep our oceans beautiful like the Surfrider Foundation, and changing my life and the sea for the better. That way, we can make a difference one step at a time.