The unfortunate event of “corona-cation 2020” has brought upon us a revised lifestyle, one that some may say is inconvenient. Why inconvenient? Well, because of the disease so many have been forced into staying inside their homes, but I’ve found a new way to be out, without actually risking the lives of others.
There are positives to being cooped up at home. An obvious one, you get to spend time growing closer to your family, it’s a time to reconnect. Which, yeah, that was great the first week, but six younger siblings who have also been stuck at home is just not it.
Due to the pressing issues not only around the country, but around the world, my mom sees it best fit that no one leaves nor enters the Merryman household. Let me inform you, it hasn’t been the most fun not being able to see my classmates and the gal pals. To pass time and make sure I don’t lose my marbles before returning to school, I took on a new hobby.
I have always been into nature, but recently having so much free time I have been given the opportunity to better explore it. I am lucky enough to live right on the oceanside, so I have been taking out my little green kayak on the deep blue to venture over to large rock piles and mini islands around my home in Duck Key.
I began scavenging for gorgeous sea shells and conchs to admire, fossil bones and rocks to eyeball, and slimy sea glass to gaze through. Each time after going out, the best part was not only watching everyone get all excited at everything I had found in the day, but realizing that there was still so much more I hadn’t found and seen. Now I go out whenever some time to myself is needed, and search for treasures to add to my growing collections. Not everything I found was shiny and beautiful though, I had another collection that wasn’t so glorious.
This all started one day when I had seen all the trash that was lodged in the rocks. I took out that green kayak, with my large brimmed sun hat and a handful of garbage bags to clean up all the garbage that had been drifting at sea. I eventually ran out of sea trash to clean up in that area, because I’ve visited so frequently. What I saved however, were bottle caps. I have a large basket of over 200 different colored and shaped bottle caps that I have saved from every exploration. I do this to represent in a condensed form, just how much trash I, as a small girl, have cleaned up on my own. It also puts in the heads of everyone I show, and share my story with, that there is so much more trash that needs to be cleaned up out there, and we can simply start with watching how we dispose of our litter.
