Personal Narrative: Turtle Recall

Turtle Recall
The beauty of life becomes apparent from the tail end of a five hundred pound turtle. Crouching uncomfortably, my hands under her cloaca, I caught the eggs. Each made a subtle ‘plop’ as each cue ball-shaped egg exited the safety her womb and found its new home in the plastic bag held between my hands. It was a frigid January night in Costa Rica, and I was working with The Leatherback Trust to relocate the eggs of the highly endangered leatherback turtle in order to ensure they were safe from environmental harm. My cohorts and I worked tirelessly, patrolling the beach for hours on end in the darkness of the night to find the rare vulnerable turtle making her tire-track trail up the wet sand of the beach to her final nesting place.
I have been passionate about the environment from a young age.

I posted them everywhere- on the refrigerator in mine and my grandparent’s homes, the offices my parents worked in, my family’s real estate firm- anywhere I could get my tiny six-year-old hands on. Looking back, this was likely counterintuitive, as I was using more paper to make the signs than I was recycling, but that is neither here nor there.
My interest was sparked by something all six year olds love- farts. In the first grade, I read that cow flatulence contained methane, a greenhouse gas, and that said methane contributed to six times the environmental harm than all cars combined. Later, in the seventh grade, I experienced another peak in my interest in the environment. I was disgusted with the way animals were treated in the meat and dairy industries, and decided to make a change in my own life by becoming a vegetarian after reading such books as Eating Animals by Jonathan Foer and watching documentaries such as Cowspiracy and Food