River Treasures, West Virginia

Submitted by Sequoya 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. "So I guess my story with water begins when my mom was picking my middle name. Originally, my dad wanted my middle name to be Blue- his favorite color. So that is kind of related to water. So she vetoed that very quickly and she decided she wanted it to be Adrianna. According to her baby name book it meant: lady of the sea. Now, my mom can’t swim an ounce (laughter). The water both fascinates and terrifies her.

So she was determined to have her little girl be able to swim. So I learned from a young age and instantly loved it. My relationship kind of developed from a passion of swimming from when I was younger to researching it as a scientist. I started off in marine biology. I’m from West Virginia, a land-locked state. With the idea of to getting to study a big open ocean was an adventure of a lifetime I didn’t necessarily get growing up. I tried it out in college and realized I am actually a small town girl at heart and fell in love with river bodies of water because it is local. After I found out my love of rivers, I kind of changed my career trajectory. I went from studying Chesapeake Bay off of Virginia to local streams, also in Virginia. Now I am here at UMass (Boston) trying a different body of water, a coastal ecosystem.

Honestly, this pathway I’ve taken, this flow, has brought out a lot of different feelings that I have towards water. There’s fear. I once was studying coral reefs in Belize and got caught in a rip tide. Even recreationally, I would go to the beach and sometimes get pulled under by a wave. But then there’s amazement. I go kayaking with my one friend back home. We collect what we call river treasures, which is just picking up litter from the water. And just curiosity. And now I study how to improve water quality to help others appreciate their water more."

Asset ID: 8017
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