Three Important People...just three? That's not fair.

I consider myself lucky to find this assignment so challenging. I have many amazing people in my life; past and present. Relevance varies depending on which aspect of my life I am examining, career goals, personal values, school success, or extra curricular projects.

            I can think of one person who has been there for all of it, I’m sure some of you have guessed already, my Mommy. She is one of the most beautiful people I know. She’s five feet and two inches full to the brim of passion, compassion, spunk, adventure, courage, experience, and knowledge. My Mom is 41 as of March of this year but acts closer to a 30 year old in the best ways possible. She has shoulder length brown hair but you may find it at her lower back if she is growing it out to donate it to cancer patients. She tells me if I look closely at her grey hairs I can see descriptions on them; the day I got my license, the day I started high school, the day I told her I was leaving to Hawaii for college, the day I decided to study sharks for a living, and the list goes on. Maybe I am the reason for her greys; heaven knows I can be a handful.

            My Mom often seems abrasive to strangers; she’s shy and unconfident around crowds and will put up a stone cold wall to keep people from getting too close. It’s hard for me to see her with others because around me she’s a funny and confident extravert. I feel so special being as close as I am to her. She let me in, she tells me everything, she trusts me and I’m one of very few that can say that. She works too much and puts more than her fair share of commitments on her plate. She can be overly lenient with people who work for/with her; she’ll often walk the line between being generous and being a push over. But one thing my Mom does, is stand for things she believes in. She is the kind of person that will boycott a store or company to prove her point; it’s an endearing quality. I can’t mention how many times our family has gone out of our way to support her charades. If she doesn’t like something she will do what she has to in order to make changes. It’s because of her that Girl Scout percentage of cookie funds, which go to the troops, has increase. That quality is what has taught me how important convictions are, how not to succumb to peer pressure, and that one person can make a difference.

            I learned how to be adventurous and fearless because of her and the things she exposed me to. My Mom encouraged me to push my limits and burst out of my comfort zone. Without her there is no way that I would be where I am today with my life goals. She has this ability to make things happen and as long as she is by my side I know that I can conquer anything I set my mind to. She means the world to and I will never take her for granted. Through thick and thin, I will be here for her. I say it often, but I mean it, I love my Mommy more than I love the ocean.

            The second person who has played an important role in my life is my mentor, college professor, and high school teacher, Kevin Flint. I’ll have to take you guys back to the first day of my freshman year. I was sitting in my Chemistry class when I hear the most obnoxious raspy voice coming from across the hall, it sounded like a dying animal. Everyone stops to listen and we hear, “FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE! GET THE HANDOUT! GET THE HANDOUT! ORALE PUES! EVERYONE GET THE HANDOUT!” The class starts laughing and my teacher, Mr. Wooton, laughs and tells us the perks of being across the hall from Mr. Flint is hearing his antics through out his class.

            Now remember, I was a nerd, and my friend and I were trying to identify a species of fish he had seen on a dive trip, so I started researching it. I had a Junior friend who was taking Marine Biology with Mr. Flint and told me to go and ask him if I could borrow some of his field guides. I wasn’t having much luck on my own so I took my friends advice. I brought a picture of the mystery fish up to Flint’s classroom during lunch and asked if he could help me identify the fish. Flint looked at me and yelled (he only yells, at all times) with his obnoxious dying animal voice, “YOU VOLUNTARILY WANT TO DO SCIENCE RESEARCH ON YOUR LUNCH BREAK?! WE’VE GOT A CRAZY ONE OVER HERE!!!” I laughed and he showed me the way to the books and we sat down and started searching for the fish. It turned out to be one of the most common fishes in the ocean, but because of the angle of the picture it had us stumped for a long time. This was two years before I ever took one of his classes. Later I took his Marine Biology class, he added me as his teachers aide and I ended up helping him with that for the rest of my high school career, I took over his environmental club with the grant and conservation/media projects I had created, I also too his Environmental Science class he taught for Oxnard College, and I took his Resource Management class once as well as helped him teach it/plan it for a couple years. We have quite a bit of history, I see him much less now but he changes very little. Flint has grey hair with a bald spot on the top back center of his head. He only wears Hawaiian shirts and jean shorts with either sneakers or Teva sandals. He only shaves his face once a year, at the end of the school year, and usually only gets one or two haircuts a year. He is extremely blunt and even more playful. There is this laid back feel to everything he does and it often seems like he just doesn’t care about anything. The better you get to know him the more you see he cares. I first felt like he was detached from everything, including his students, but if you show drive and prove yourself he will invest in you. Flint has amazing comedic timing and is definitely one of the funniest people I will ever know. He has had me literally rolling on the floor laughing before and I’m not the only one either.

            Kevin Flint is important to me because he invested time and effort into the things I brought to him. He made me feel important and able when other teachers didn’t take the time to care. Flint supported my grant program and allowed me to strive for more. He taught me independence and gave me confidence to put myself out into the marine world. He aided me in networking and making a name for myself in the marine science community. Kevin supported me in the things I did, he gave me experienced feedback, and allowed me to use his as a sounding board whenever I needed one. He molded me in some of the most developmentally important years of my life and I am forever grateful for all he’s done…even if he doesn’t realize it.

            This is becoming a much larger post than I anticipated.  I’m having trouble picking just one other person to write about. Sometimes people take advantage of important people in their lives. I’m guilty of this. Growing up for the first eight years my Dad spent a lot of time traveling for his job and my Mom worked long hours, since my Grandma lives with us she ended up taking care of me during those years. Most people actually thought she was my Mom for the longest time; after all she was the one raising me. It says she’s five feet on her driver’s license but she has shrunk a few inches since then. She is in her late 60’s but is more “with it” than I am. She uses words like fo’shizzle and is addicted to her Wii game consol, her rapper name is ‘Lil G. She keeps her hair short and dyes it an ash brown color to hide the greys. My Grandma has the cutest little legs and she is tiny and adorable. She wears light denim jeans with elastic waists and cotton v-neck or crewneck shirts. Lately she’s been continually chilly so she usually wears sweaters or fleece zip ups over her shirts.

            My Grandma is over bearing, a worrywart, a bit nosy sometimes, moody, and I have caught her doing vindictive things on occasion. She tests my patients and I’m not always as polite as I should be. She has very low self esteem so she takes things personal and always makes everything about her. On the other had she can be the most thoughtful, grateful, caring, helpful, nurturing, and giving woman. She does so much for me. She still takes care of me, when I’m not feeling well she is the first to offer her homemade remedies full of love. She does my laundry, keeps the house clean, makes tea when anyone isn’t feeling well, and cares for our cats when we’re all away. She is diabetic and hasn’t been doing the best with taking care of herself. Recently she has been having some problems with her health and it really got me thinking, I can’t lose her. We spend so much time bickering like children over nonsense; it’s a waste of time. She’s my elder, she’s been through so much, and here we are arguing about who said what three months ago over a topic that has nothing to do with anything anymore. She is so cool, I should be spending time with her, showing her how much I appreciate all of the things she does for me. Until I got my license she would pretty much take me anywhere I needed to be, she financially supported me until I was able to support myself, she has always there to get me out of a bind, and she does it without questions. Anytime I am in trouble or unhappy she is always there to try and pick me up. She really is an amazing woman and everything she does is because she cares. She has so much love to give and I really feel blessed to be someone she wants to share that love with. It’s the little things that she does that say the most. As I get older the more I do to make up for time lost because it’s easier for me to see how much I take advantage of her. I do as much as I can for her, not because she’s done so much for me, but because I want to make things easier for her and she deserves it. I want to show her that I can love her the way she’s loved me, unconditionally.

            My Grandma is important to me because she plays such a major roll in my life. Without her my whole family and household would be chaos. A while back she said sometimes she doesn’t feel like an important part of the family, but she doesn’t realize how much our family needs her. She is so cute and loving. I can’t imagine life without her. I love my Grandma so much. I hope she stays healthy and lives long because I want to share as much as I possibly can with my ‘Lil G.