It looks like I'll be a TA next year for some biology courses! I'm excited to get some experience. I'll need it for grad school. There's like a 99% chance I'll have to do that later on! Just taking baby steps in the right direction. Now I have to figure out where I'm going...

I just love this song, so I have to post the lyrics here. It just so happens to have a nautical theme... 

"Oceans" by Hillsong

You call me out upon the waters

The great unknown where feet may fail

And there I find You in the mystery

In oceans deep my faith will stand

And I will call upon Your name

And keep my eyes above the waves

When oceans rise my soul will rest in Your embrace

For I am Yours and You are mine

Your grace abounds in deepest waters

Your sovereign hand will be my guide

Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me

You've never failed and You won't start now

So I will call upon Your name

And keep my eyes above the waves

When oceans rise my soul will rest in Your embrace

For I am Yours and You are mine

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters wherever You would call me

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith would be made stronger in the presence of my Savior

I will call upon Your name

And keep my eyes above the waves

When oceans rise my soul will rest in Your embrace

I am Yours and You are mine.

This song is such a good prayer.

I spent part of this weekend at home seeing family and gathering supplies for the trip down to the coast for the summer. It's becoming so real now. Like I'm actually going. I have my excessively large suitcase ready to go. It's only a few weeks away now!

I don't deserve any of the opportunities that I have been given. 

That sounds kind of harsh but it's true. Enough with this "I worked for it; I deserve it" stuff. I would literally - literally - be nothing without my Savior Jesus Christ. Literally. I cannot emphasize that enough. I'm here doing fun science stuff because He has called me to it. I'm pretty darn good at it because He wired me this way. Enough with "I deserve it." No. God deserves the glory of it all. 

God has chosen the world's insignificant and despised things -- the things viewed as nothing -- so He might bring to nothing the things that are viewed as something, so that no one can boast in His presence. 

1 Corinthians 1:28-29

Just got out of marine biology lab and it was ridiculous. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the labs...but this one was intense. 

We were in search of any kind of flatworms we could find. Most of the time we were looking for tapeworms in shrimp. (Yes, I said shrimp. Like the ones we eat and think are yummy and delicious. Most shrimp have tapeworms living in various places in their bodies. Fun fact.) Also, we looked for adult cestodes in the spiral valve of a ray. The spiral valve is the part of its digestive tract  that literally spirals in its body cavity. We found all sorts of parasites. I mostly found flatworm larvae actually. 

Intense Platyhelminthes marine lab. Just another day in the life...

That's it! I've started this blog for my loved ones to keep up with me and my numerous adventures. They might not be too numerous, but I promise there will be some. I will be heading to the Gulf Coast this summer for a little while to take some marine science classes. Hopefully that will go well! I'm so excited it hurts my everything. Pray for me! And that I will seek the Lord's face and hear His call while I'm there. I'm not gonna go into too much detail, but God knows what He's doing sending me down to the coast this summer. Things are lining up! What a wonderful God I serve.

For I know the plans I have for you -- this is the Lord's declaration -- plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:11-13