Can we talk about how my dream of being a marine biologist died when I saw a shark 6 feet away while snorkeling in Florida

I mean, I spent 3 years in high school obsessed with the ocean and took two marine bio electives, but one close encounter with a bull shark near Key Largo in 2019 and suddenly my whole plan to study great whites vanished overnight, has anyone else had a single moment kill their big goal?

3 comments

3 Comments

kimmurphy1mo agoMost Upvoted

Its wild how one real life moment can just flip a switch on something you were so sure about. I think the same thing happens with everyday stuff too, like you can watch a million cooking shows but one bad meal at a restaurant can turn you off a whole cuisine forever. It's like all that book knowledge just can't prepare you for the actual feeling of the thing, good or bad.

jenny471mo ago

Totally changed how I saw that once you see something for real versus in a book it hits different.

hollyl251mo ago

Was it the actual sight of the shark that shook you, or the surprise of seeing it that close to people? Because I feel like that's a huge difference. For me, I wanted to be a vet until I watched a dog get put down during a volunteer shift. The whole experience was so quiet and calm, but seeing the life just leave its eyes changed everything overnight for me.