Waiting on the World to Change

 Hi everyone!

My name is Madeline Odom, and I'm new here to Dr. Childress' CI. My freshman year, I helped with Something Very Fishy, but I'm a junior now and that really seems like forever ago. College has flown by. I'm actually an animal and vet science major, hoping to be a vet one day. And I can't tell you how excited I am to be doing marine work at a Clemson! 

I do work at a vet office, but the weirdest thing we have seen there is a snake. No marine life :( I had applied for an internship with the South Carolina aquarium but you know.... COVID-19. So, I am overly thankful to be participating in this CI, and I can't tell you how much I've learned about marine species and debris and (the topic of our discussion this week) forensic entomology in the ocean. 

I've always been a criminal minds fan, so this discussion will be fun. 

But apart from me, this semester I have been helping Kea with her Dive Against Debris project. We have spent countless hours organizing all of her images that she took from dives into categories, based on species type, debris type, location, and more. It is tedious work-- but when work like this interests you as much as it interests me, the work passes by quickly. 

As much as the pandemic has affected us, it still gave me the opportunity to be a part of something I've been looking forward to since I was a senior in high school. I knew one of the old members of the team, and the way she talked about it, I just knew I had to be a part. I actually emailed Dr. Childress the summer before my freshman year. 

I've never been diving, but I have snorkeled a lot in Florida on vacations. One of my top goals for this year is to get my certification and be able to dive and (hopefully) help Kea develop this project. 

But until this pandemic is over, we're just waiting on the world to change. 

And loving every minute of the work while we wait. 

Thank you, 

Madeline :)