My trip to Discover Cove wasn’t far, but it has been my most memorable and self-developing adventure. For my sweet 16 my family went to Discovery Cove since Ive always wanted to swim with dolphins. And that’s what I did. I swam with a dolphin named Dexter and fed it raw fish and ice cubes, making that cold February day easily the most exciting day of my life.
The first discovery of myself was that ive always thought my step mom didn’t care for me,but she was the one who set up everything so I could touch a dolphin. While we were there we got along well and I realized that just because she may not show she cares,doesn’t mean she doesnt. My 2nd realization was that I may consider a career with animals like dolphins. Ive thought of it before, but with a dolphin so close where we couldn’t be any closer unless I sand papered my finger print off, made it a realistic dream.
The next day we swam with stingrays and fish that I havnt even seen on television, and we walked around doing other things too. By noon we went to eat at a dinning area. All five of us had gotten our food ,but when my dad went to pay,the account was maxed out. We ate, but it was embarresing. Later we found out that the guy who took the pictures of Dexter and I had charged us for most of the pictures when we only bought one. We got that money back and paid for the dinner. I was embarressed and felt guilty that the parents had gone through the trouble when we didn’t have money for it. Ive never really thought about money. As long as we had electricity and clothes Ive been happy and not worrisome, but this was the first time I ever really thought about how insignificant material things are. They could have fixed up the house but decided instead to spend it on my birthday so we could have memories-which are far more precious than anything material in the world.
Ive always loved animals and always known it. But during Discovery Cove I began to love them even more and not only big animals but small ones too. I learned how much I respected nature. While we were walking around near the Dolphin arena for kids there was this squirrel following us. So we took a picture of it almost close enough to touch our fingers. We went into a bird habbitat area also. It started out as a pool but there was an area behind it that had a door leading to the bird habitat. We found it because my step sister got green bird poop down her face and she ran out of the water faster than ive ever seen her move before. Her face was priceless! She ran through the door. When we caught up we fed the birds-how the instructer showed us-and they pirched on our fingers. So many animals and I didn’t want them to be harmed by anything. So I began to pick up trash anywhere I saw it around.
The trip to Discovery Cove has meant a lot to me and still does. To this day I still try to be as envirionmental as possible and get along with my step family. I would rather have memories and experiences than money and objects.Most of all-everyone has embarressing moments, so laugh. Things are going to happen and acceptance is the only answer because its unchangable.
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