Two summers ago, I interned at the gulf of Thailand's only research. The building is of red brick, sinking slightly into the mud. The beach is a minute's walk from the front door, and the reef begins almost immediately, stretching out in the clear water as far as the eye can see. The facility is run by a gruff ex-navy British diver and his partner, a coral reef researcher. They stay year round, though they only accept interns in the dry season. In the monsoon, water floods the village, and the diving conditions become lethal. The divemaster gave me a slate, and told me to swim along a transect, counting which coral colonies showed bleaching. The work was not easy, as the coral colonies are difficult to distinguish from each other, and every individual colony needed counting, no matter how small. Over the summer, I stayed longer and longer underwater, and could count a thousand coral in a good day. Sometimes, the boat broke down, and sometimes, a squall appeared from seemingly nowhere, and rain pattered on the water above me. Every day, I saw bleached coral, and no matter how many transects I ran, I could not see a pattern in the bleaching. The lab coordinator who gave us our tasks was a quiet sort, and did not often go into detail about her work. However, on her birthday halfway into the summer she satisfied my curiosity. She explained that little is known about why some coral bleach, and some don't, even when they're positioned right next to each other on the reef. Even less is known about the Guld of Thailand's reef, since they are the only research post in the region, and don't have the manpower to explore more reefs than the ones they can reach on a motorboat. She does know that the Gulf of Thailand's reefs are turbulent, like the reefs in Hawaii, and extremely temperature resistant. Coral is usually sensitive to such changes, but the coral in Thailand is more hardy. Again, it's unknown exactly as to why, but she confided that's why she believes her work is so important. I'd like to use my degree in the same way she did, holding down a research post where none existed before, learning all I can about something alive that might save a corner of the blue Earth. As she tries to unlock the mystery as to why the reefs in the Gulf of Thailand behave the way they do, I'd like to focus on algae, which I discovered an affection for in my first year of college. Bioenergy and aquaculture might be the way of saving these mysterious reefs, and the many other corners of the world that I haven't had the pleasure of visiting. And if it's not that, it's something else, and I'll try to help find it.

"You're gonna carry that weight." Cowboy Bebop, legendary anime of the nineties, follows three characters through the Wild West in space. The jazzy soundtrack, faded color pallet and raw setting set the show up to tell the message that keeps me coming back every time- a tale of how to rebuild life while the past haunts you. The show introduces Spike, our dashing hero, in the first episode. He's the very picture of daring cowboy bounty hunter, living life like tumbleweed on his ship, the Bebop, with his companion, Jet Black. He's forced to kill a drug-crazed villain and his wife, both desperate for a new life on Mars. He seems unbothered by the loss in bounty or by their deaths, only disappointed that he's forced to eat without beef for want of money. The first episode also shows some unrelated flashbacks- blood splattered on roses, sporadic gunfire from figures in shadow, and Spike dropping a cigarette. These scenes make no sense until connected with scenes in the finale- when the final message of the show hits hard. As the show goes on, the characters of Spike, Jet, and Faye, a new addition to the crew, are colored in. Spike is the main focus of the show, but Jet and Faye's plotlines tie in to his ending. Spike continues his act as a dashing cowboy hero, but observant watchers note that his love of laughing in the face of danger is not in the manner of a typical young hero- Spike appears not to care if he lives or dies from the risks that he takes. He's also a heavy smoker; in many of the quieter scenes Spike reaches for a cigarette or is smoking one already. At the end of the show, Spike's plotline finishes with a bang. After we've gotten to know Spike, and begun to care for him as a character, in the finale he is given a chance at revenge against the shadow that has been looming over him for the entire show. Faye and Jet, who successfully made peace with their own regrets, beg him to move on with them, but the stoic Spike the audience thought they knew changes, and he goes to duel his enemy. Spike and his enemy kill each other, and as Spike lays dying, neither happy nor sad, but avenged, the iconic line plays across the screen- "You're gonna carry that weight."