monterey bay, california...home of one of the best aquariums in the U.S. and my loving grandma had season tickets for ALL her grandkids...even for ME, who lived all the way in colorado. we were only able to make it out to carmel once every couple years, but we would ALWAYS go to the aquarium...ALWAYS go explore the tidepools...and ALWAYS dip our feet in the pacific ocean. i love those memories...
mrs. deloux, my 7th grade science teacher. i know God placed me in her class for a specific reason...to connect the dots...to keep my dream alive! she worked at seaworld, san diego before moving to colorado to be a science teacher. she had pictures of ocean animals all over her classroom. in 8th grade, i took her marine biology block class and LOVED every second of it! that summer, i went to seaworld camp with a group of 8th graders from my school and it was everything i hoped it would be! we did the dolphin interaction program, met belugas and penguins, watched all the shows...it was amazing.
in high school, i got SCUBA certified (in a hole in the ground in new mexico), attended two more seaworld camps (this time in san antonio), and stacked my academics heavy on the science side.
swimming was a HUGE part of my life, and still is. i remember during one of my swim practices, my coach pulled me out of the water to give me a motivational talk. there were people i was swimming with who were going to the olympic trials...that's how good they were!! he asked me what my goals were for the season, and what my swimming career goals were and i told him "honestly, greg, i just want to pass the seaworld swim test after i get out of college so i can be a dolphin trainer." he just starred at me, like he had never heard that come out of anyone's mouth. that swim test, in my mind, was my olympics and i was going to work as hard as i could to get to that point.
college flew by...it was challenging academically, but i enjoyed the challenge...i wanted that biology degree. i could've easily studied psychology and had a lot less "all night" study sessions, but i was determined. my first semester, i met dr. goforth...he would be my college mentor. he was a navy dolphin trainer, he got his doctorate studying the physiology of dolphins, and he knew A LOT about marine science. i took his marine invertebrate class as a freshman...the only one to ever do that in all his years of teaching. his marine zoology class was amazing! that's where i learned ALL my genus species names of marine mammals! he helped me get into my australia research course, where i studied sea cucumbers AND he helped me get my summer internship at the u.s navy marine mammal program.
over the past few years, i've been unsettled, unsure of what path to take, unsure of what's happening in my life and why, unsure of the future. i wake up wondering "WHY?" why not me? what steps have i missed to NOT have certain opportunities, but i remain patient, ever so patient. i joke with people that i will be 40 years old, still taking the swim test at seaworld, still not giving up on my dream to work with marine mammals, still hopeful...HOPE...it's all i have left...
today was an ordinary day at work. nothing exciting was happening, just doing my job to keep the fish alive. almost every day, i run during my lunch break. people always ask if i'm training for a race (and i tell them, "who would PAY to run? not for me...) and i'm not. i actually don't enjoy running that much, but it's a break, it's a time to breathe, MY time to think, to get away, to keep dreaming.
on my way out of security, i stopped and looked at the job board...hoping for an opportunity and to my amazement there WAS a posting...and it was FULL TIME!!! it's a full time animal training job. i had to read over it 3 times because i couldn't believe it. positions rarely open in san diego, and if they do, people are usually promoted from within. that's been my biggest struggle being in the fish department is knowing other positions are open, but i CAN'T apply to them because i'm not in THAT specific department.
my run during lunch was one of the best i've had...i cried pretty much the whole time. sooooo thankful for this opportunity...sooooo hopeful THIS would be MY open door...THIS would be the clarity i've so desperately wanted, the end result of my broken past...THIS would be what i've dreamed about since i was a young student in the 2nd grade...THIS would be it...
i have a vision of God looking down on me, smiling, leading me with his loving hand on my back, reassuring me to TRUST him, HE knows what's going to happen and whispering in my ear, "see...i told you everything would work out in MY timing..."
please, God, please let this be your timing...
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