A highlight of my week so far was the Marine Eco dive my class did yesterday. We gathered our scuba gear and drove boats out to a patch reef, which is a home for juvenile fish before they move to big reefs. We observed the different fish, worms, mollusks, and crustaceans carefully and identified as many species as we could. The coolest part about Marine Eco is learning about a species in class and then actually diving and seeing it in real life. I can’t wait for our next dive!

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Today, I was confronted with a decision at about7 AM. After pushing myself about a mile and a half down the road, I was jogging in place at a fork with my running buddy, Liz, deciding between either the 3.5-mile run or the 5-mile challenge. After about 30 seconds of back and forth, I suddenly bounded through the 5-mile entrance, Liz right next to me. We decided our goal was to finish the run faster than we had ever run long distance before.

We ran for a while, synchronizing our panting breath and pushing our strides longer and longer. We talked between gasps about home, sports, our families, and anything else we could think of to keep our minds busy, but we never stopped running. Suddenly, we heard cheering close by. We rounded a corner and saw The Island School campus sign. Liz and I looked at each other, smiling. We were going to finish!

We sprinted past the bike shed and down the conch-shell lined path to the flagpole where we met a cheering section of 20 other people in run track. After triumphantly smacking the flag pole as we crossed the finish line, Liz and I high fived twice and then had a good sweaty hug. Never in my life did I think I could run five miles, let alone as fast as I did this morning! I’m so proud of myself.