The Beginnings of a Beautiful Friendship

When people ask me what I do I tell them I'm a scientist. I don't immediately tell them that I'm a student. The reason for this is simple... The stigma. It was okay to say you were a student when you were 18; but at 30, I draw the line. People would probably think you were out of your mind to go back to school past the age of 21. As I let the statement of my job-status settle in, I gauge the person's reaction. If they seem impressed, then I fling little titbits of information: "I'm a marine and freshwater biology student,"; "I'm a final year,"; "I wanna do postgrad research,". Things like that. What I don't do is get into the nitty-gritty of what really gets me excited about my area. The reason for that is rather simple: people hear the word science and their eyes glaze over. It's not even as if the reaction happens over an imperceptibly slow period of time, making it difficult to observe. It literally takes five seconds. The thing about the phenomenon that really pisses me off is that most people are actually qualified to understand what it is you'd like to talk about, it's mostly just a case of wilful ignorance. It's like people are afraid to be caught by their friends talking about something that has more than a passing resemblance to a cogent thought.

Some of my lecturers say that there are no bad science-learners, only bad science-communicators; which is their word de jour for what Sir David Attenborough is. Personally, I hate the term. It has the word science in it! And that word is what catalyses the loss of interest! A new phrase will take over, eventually. I just hope that it's better than the current one.

I've sort of went off-topic here! This was meant to be the introduction to - not only - my first professional blog, but also my first blog ever! I'd give myself a congratulatory pat on the back; but I've not managed to get to the crux of what I wanted to say... Yet! So without further ado, here I go.

For all the geeks, nerds and aficionados of the animal kingdom.

Since the age of... I don't know (I was that young!), my dad always took me out into the wilderness. The wilderness for me - at that age - was the beach, the forest and the hills. Those places always filled me with a totally unarticulated wonder. Hell! I still have difficulty trying to describe my feelings about the animal kingdom today!

Out of all the trips I took with him, the ones that I associate most strongly with, are the times where we would spend hours beach-combing for jellyfish. It was at that point in my life that I knew that; regardless of my life's journey - I'd always be within a stone's throw of an ocean. When I was six or seven, my mum had to go to the Job Centre and she took me with her. They had a really old-fashioned computer there that had basic functionality for checking job lists. I got really excited by the possibility that I could put in David Attenborough's job-title, and that I'd be able to apply for it. It was then that I sat puzzled - and slightly miffed! - that I hadn't asked my dad what Sir David's job was. It was not until my second appearance at the centre that I managed to type Naturalist into the database. Funnily enough, several posts popped up; but I was too young to actually know what I was doing (bear in mind that this was the early '90s and computers had minimal/non-existent user-friendliness).

As the years went by, I spent time in the University of Glasgow doing a nursing degree that I was not interested in. Eventually, I made the decision to leave. More years passed working for RBS, which afforded me the luxury of taking several SCUBA diving trips to Egypt. The first trip I went on was in September 2008 with my boyfriend (I use the term loosely as we had just broken up prior to the holiday beginning). Succinctly, the trip was horrific. He got jealous when I started speaking to all the old-dears that were there. Yet despite all the shit that went down on that holiday, it remains the most pivotal experience of my life. It was on that holiday that I finally fulfilled my lifelong ambition to learn to SCUBA dive. When I first stuck my head under the unbelievably warm ocean waters, I was totally taken aback. All these fish swarming around you. It was like being in an aquarium! (Scottish waters are barren by comparison!). I made it a point to snorkel whilst I waited the few days for my SCUBA course to begin. 

Taeniura lymma, Egypt November, 2011.

There was a feeling I got as I looked off into the distance as I casually bobbed on the surface of that salty sea. If I had my German friend with me she'd probably be able to manufacture a word for that feeling. It was as if I was looking at the Big Bang, it was that captivating! The sun's rays penetrated the surface and shone down in diagonal beams whose association triggered a memory of a scene from the Little Mermaid (my favourite Disney film!). Then I looked back at the rocks that guided me along the coast, which were encrusted with innumerable numbers of animals that made those barren rocks look like heaps of gemstones.

There was a feeling I got as I looked off into the distance, Egypt November 2011. Not actually what I saw as I didn't have an underwater camera on my first set of dives; but you get the idea.

That feeling of witnessing something so beautiful made me glad to be alive. It actually made me think that that perfect moment in time was worth every bad thing that had ever happened to me. I knew as soon as that moment in my life was over, that I'd be forever hooked. I was a coral reef junkie!

Chaetodon semilarvatus, Egypt November 2012: One of the rare instances when I managed to operate my camera properly.

That period of my life coincided with my one-year anniversary at RBS. It wasn't until four years later that I managed to get myself ready financially speaking, for beginning a new period of study. And here I am already at the beginning of the end of that period.

The aim of this blog is intended to provide the general reader with interesting asides regarding the invertebrate (sans spine) animals. It is this group of animals that I will be studying for the rest of my life. In particular, the Cnidaria. This Phylum (fancy science word for group), includes all your gorgeously relaxing jellyfish, all your cute coral polyps and all the sea anemones. It also includes other animals that you'll probably not be aware of, such as the sea-pens and sea-whips. 

Cerianthus, Egypt November 2011. One of the many reasons for studying the Cnidaria: the simple beauty.

If I haven't put you into a coma with all this reminiscing, stay tuned for the next entry in this blog which will highlight some of my final year research thesis, which is on Hydra, a freshwater cnidarian. 

Peter.