Finding a Starfish on the Oregon Coast

Submitted by Shannon to the Women Mind the Water digital stories project, in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street storytelling website and traveling exhibition "Water/Ways."

This story was recorded at the School for the Environment, UMASS Boston.

"My story today has to do with my very first childhood memory. I was about four years old and I’m from Seattle. We were down on vacation with my parents along the Oregon coast. We were walking along the beach and all of a sudden we came across a starfish and it was being attached by seagulls. My parents, you know, go into that whole thing about how that’s nature. Things die.

Things have to eat, but I just couldn’t handle that as a four year old. So as we were walking away I felt really guilty. And, I just remember running back, picking up the starfish and putting it in the water. That night at the dinner table my family was talking a lot about it, about how we have to let things die in order for other things to live, but I also just couldn’t let that happen right in front of my face. I think at that moment my parents knew I was going to go into science because first of all I was a four year old who wasn’t afraid to pick up a star fish and second of all, how much I cared about them."
 

Asset ID: 8019
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