Saying Goodbye

The final day of our trip was such an emotional roller coaster.

Today was our last day at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, and there were so many emotions flowing through us as we walked through those doors at 7:30 amfor the last morning of service. We fed and cleaned the tanks of the turtles in Turtle Bay as usual, people worked in Sick Bay as usual, and it seemed for a moment as though nothing would change. It really started to hit as we began wrapping up for the morning, As we sat in the break room and doused our hands in hand sanitizer one last time, we reflected on all of the experiences we’d had with the turtles and volunteers over the last week. We had managed to walk in with little to no experience caring for these turtles and knowing none of the volunteers working there, and we walked away with more knowledge than we could ever have imagined.

We took a brief break for lunch and returned to the turtle hospital one last time to take some pictures of the hospital and the turtles to preserve their memories, and it was both fun and extremely emotional at the same time. As we took pictures we got to see the turtles act on the personalities we had come to know so well, and took plenty of pictures to reflect them. However, we also began to realize that this was the last time that many of us would be seeing these incredible animals. Many of them (including Eclipse, Nancy, Sawyer, Remora, and others) will be released into the wild this June, so we know for certain that this is the last time that we’ll be seeing them up close.

We have been extremely fortunate to have been able to work these amazing animals, and are grateful for this opportunity. By working with and connecting to these animals, we have come to a greater understanding of why environmental conservation efforts are a necessity. Despite the limits of their brain size, they have survived the millennia and have shown distinct personalities that have made us fall in love with them, and we can only hope that they survive so that the generations that follow will also be able to see these incredible creatures.

After we went back to the house and grabbed some lunch, we headed off to the north side of the island, to observe the effect that being a barrier island has had on the island of topsail. It was insane to witness the stark contrast between the south side of the island and the north side. While the south side was very calming and relaxing, and what is usually imagined as the typical beach atmosphere, the north side barely existed anymore. There was very little distance between where the ocean ended, and development started. In some places, the houses seemed to be literally right up against the ocean. It was very obvious that work had been done to try to prevent this, as there were thousands of sandbags lining the edges of the residential areas to prevent the catastrophic effects of beach erosion.  However, it was very clear that even the biggest efforts by the local community sometimes are not enough to combat the effects of mother nature. A lot of the sandbags we observed, were actually completely buried underneath of the sand, and they were all soaked with water, implying that the water has indeed reached the houses, and it probably occurs relatively frequently. While this sight was shocking to see, we still get enjoy ourselves quite a bit on the north side of the beach. We had quite a few dance parties while we were walking down the beach, collected more seashells than we could carry, and shared quite a few laughs.

We drove back to the house, and almost immediately had to get ready for our final meeting with Jean, the founder of the turtle hospital. After an entire week of eating only food that we had at the house, we were finally able to splurge a little bit and go out to a nice dinner at Gallagher's. We got all dressed up, and decided to go down to the beach briefly before we left to take a "few" pictures. Donald ended up showing off his professional photography skills and ended up over 300 photos of all of us! The photoshoot, while it took slightly longer than anticipated, was super fun, and we all got some pretty amazing photos of us on the beach.

Dinner with Jean was absolutely amazing! We ordered seven appetizers, which we all filled up on leaving us very little room for our actual meals. However, a few of us still powered through and were able to finish our meals, even though our stomachs were not very pleased with us. Eleven out of the thirteen of us ended up ordering the exact same meal, the Carolina burger, as Katie had been telling us that she had been daydreaming about it for months. While the food was extraordinary, the best part of the whole excursion was getting to know Jean better. We were able to learn so much more about her life, such as what she did before she opened up the hospital. She also gave us such inspirational advice about life and invited us all out to see the release of the turtles in June!

While this was the last day, and it is very bittersweet, it was such an incredible experience to go on this trip and become so educated on how we as individuals can make an active difference in our society and environment. We all grew so close in friendship while simultaneously learning so much about the impact that we are able to have on the world through going out into our communities, and educating others on the issue.