I have always loved fish. Is it weird to love fish? When I was five my dad told us he was taking my brother and I on a fishing day a few hours away, from the car I shouted AQUARIUM! I read the sign. I was five, my dad loves that story and bragging about my reading ability for my age at the time.

My parents wanted to throw me a big party for my sixteenth birthday. Instead I asked them for a fish tank. A family friend gave me his unused 55 gallon tank, and I built my reef community from the ground up. I bought a DSLR with savings so I could make high quality videos of my fish. I was obsessed. I moved. I had to get rid of them, but it always stayed. I wanted to study Marine science when I went to college, but by my senior year I had been talked out of it by my family and friends- not enough money/opportunity in the field. Been in and out of schooling for a few years.

Today, my boyfriend took me to an aquarium for Valentine's Day.

I know all the fish facts. Who is who and why gobies have eyes on top of their heads and watch, honey! That seahorse is gonna anchor himself to that seagrass! It's so exciting for me. I feel like a little kid.

When we left, he told me in the years he's known me, he's never seen me as happy as I am when I talk about fish. He told me I should really pursue it, that through the years, he's only ever seen me like that in aquariums.

Totally effing lost it. Nobody ever supported it as anything more than a hobby. I texted my mom about it today and she said, well honey. really think about it. I think finance would still be the smart choice. She's right! It would be! But I'd be miserable, settling, doing it for my folks.

I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna make it happen.