The Ocean as a Retreat, California

Submitted by Hannah 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 School for the Environment, UMASS Boston. "The ocean has always been my happy place. I grew up in California about an hour away from San Francisco. When I was in high school it became a kind of safe haven for me so when life got difficult and stressful and all this stuff happened, I would get the weekend and my dad and I would drive out to Point Reyes National Seashore or Monterey Bay and it would just be this really great sanctuary for me to get perspective. As someone who struggled with depression from high school onwards, it was always this place I could feel happy and joy without any of the other things that weighed down on me.

My favorite thing to do, no matter what body of water it is or how cold it is, is to run into the ocean and put my feet in so I can feel connected. Because when you are in that body of water you really are connected to everything. That body of water, regardless of how many oceans we say we have, is one thing. It all circulates and when you are there you are in the same body of water as Great White Sharks and jelly fish and blue whales and things we don’t even know about or can imagine what they are in the deep ocean. That just makes me feel so happy and reminds me why I do what I do in terms of environmental science. And, makes everything else I go through worth it."

 

Asset ID: 8012
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