Have you ever had a crazy dream as a little kid? Like to be an astronaut, or the president, or even a princess? Well when I was a little kid all I wanted to do was be a marine biologist. I know it sounds like a strange thing for a kid to want to be but I just loved all aquatic animals.

My dream as a little kid was to swim with all kinds of sea animals, and as the years go by my childhood dream is slowly getting accomplished.

This past Spring Break my family and I drove to Florida and stayed with our cousins in Panama City. The drive was sixteen hours long, and sitting in a car for that long with my younger brother and our two dogs, Louis and Clark, made it seem even longer. There was no traffic up until we hit Nashville and since it was so bad we decided to stop off and get something to eat considering we had been driving for almost eight hours. We went to
When we finally arrived at my cousin’s house we were surprised to see that it was ginormous. It had six bedrooms, a work-out room, a pool with a hot tub, and a beach front view with several kayaks and paddle boards for when they felt like being on the ocean.

We got the essentials out of the car, because we were all so tired from the long journey that we didn’t think unpacking the car was the most important thing at the time, and let the dogs roam around while we walked up the stairs to the front door and rang the doorbell. The sound of dogs barking could be heard but it wasn’t coming from Louis and Clark. My Aunt opened the door and two more dogs came running out of the house.
Four dogs. There were four dogs staying with us.
Though having four dogs in the house was exciting, we were all so tired that we spent the first day resting. The next day we got right back in the car and drove  to a little town called Crystal River. Going to Crystal River was the main reason for our whole trip because there you can swim with manatees. This had to be one of the best experiences of my life because where we went was one of the only places in the world that it is legal to swim with these gentle giants.
After four more hours in the car, without Louis and Clark this time, we finally arrived at the American Pro Diving Center. It was around six or seven in the morning and it had just stopped raining, the ground was still wet but the sun was shining. We walked inside and signed in and put on wetsuits, and also bought a few souvenirs to remember the trip by. Of course, my mom can’t do anything without taking pictures first so we got together and put on forced smiles so we could do more adventures in the future. We met our Diving instructor, Michael, and he told us that he had a passion for diving and had started his diving career in 2000.

Because the number of manatees in the world is so low that they are considered endangered, there were several rules on what you couldn’t do when you got in the water with the manatees. Some of the rules were no chasing the manatees, don’t swim over them, and don’t touch them unless they come up to you. I could go into detail about  all of the other rules because before we left the center we had to sit through a seven minute state mandated video full of all of the rules, but if you really wanted to swim with manatees you could go and watch the video yourself. Even though the video seemed to be way longer than seven minutes all of it was worth it when we finally got in the water.

To actually go into the water you had to drive a short distance to get to the docks. During the drive everyone was quiet, partly because we were all excited, but mostly because we were still tired. When we arrived at the docks it started drizzling and other people who were in our group to swim with manatees also started showing up.

Though it had been sunny when we arrived at the dive center, it was not the best day to go swimming, since it had rained for the majority of the day before, gray clouds covered the sky like a fluffy blanket, and light rain drops fell from the sky. The bad thing about the rain was the water wasn’t as clear as it normally is and tiny gnat sized bugs that are nicknamed, no-see-ems, would come out and bite you. We all got onto the boat and rode a short distance to a place where our instructor said was the best place to look for manatees.

Then it was finally time, after all the rules, and the driving, and suffering through bug bite after bug bite, we got into the water. Even though it was gloomy above the surface the water was warm and the sand was soft to the touch. Though it was dark out you could still see through the murky water and the further you got from the boat the closer you got to the manatees. Getting into the water and swimming next to them is a life changing experience that I think everyone should do at least once. Seeing how big they are in real life was one of the coolest things I have ever done, and I hope to swim with other sea animals in the near future.

If you are like me, your childhood dreams never fade. To this day I still dream about becoming a marine biologist and exploring the lakes and oceans of the world. I hope to make that dream come true in the near future, as I aspire to major in marine biology or zoology in college.