This is the actual list of ways my life has been ruined by turtles of the sea.
This incident was my first encounter with the fact that animals eat other animals. I should also mention that this was the first time I was exposed to the fact that animals even die at all. As I said before, it scarred me for life. I can't see anything related to turtles without thinking of that moment and I get a little emotionally distressed for a second. It's like I have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or something over it. I can't and will not watch documentaries about animals because I don't want to see anything having to do with animals and their food chains or any of that. I don't want to see ANY animal getting mauled by another animal, for the sake of the prey OR the turtles. That's right, even if it's another animal getting violently torn apart, I still flashback to the turtles for a moment.
This fear of watching the animal documentaries even led to me taking the "F" on assignments in school when I refused to watch them in Biology or Ecology. My teachers just didn't understand.
My whole family knows this story and sometimes I find myself as the subject of mockery about it. Seriously. They say it's all in good fun or whatever, but it's definitely not fun for me.
While watching Finding Nemo, when it gets to where Crush says "The little dudes are just eggs, you lay em on the beach and they hatch, and then coo-coo-cachoo, they find their way back to the big ol' blue." In the back of my mind, I'm all like "Not all of them!" *sobbing*
The next thing involving this subject is that recently I bought a pair of sea turtle earrings, ultimately because they were cute. However, I was slightly hesitant at first, because yes, I thought of the incident and it was upsetting. Once I convinced myself I wanted them, they were the best earrings ever and I loved them. When my mom saw them, she was like:
Mom: You're gonna get the sea turtles? Doesn't that make you think of...
(Already knowing what she was thinking because I was obviously thinking the same thing)
Me: *trying to sound like maybe I was moving on from that or something* Yes, I'm trying to be like Batman.
Mom: ...What?
Me: Batman chose bats to represent him because he fears them, yet he doesn't want that fear to define him. I don't want the sea turtle incident to define me for forever. I'm embracing it. I'm cool like Batman.
My mom just let me be. She didn't know how to respond to that, so she was just shrugging it off as "Whatever floats your boat, kid."
I buy the earrings, put them in and wear them all the time, they're my new favorites. Now, I'm bad about never taking my jewelry off, so I sleep with it, wash my hands with it, shower with it, whatever. One day, about 2 weeks later, I'm in the shower and while washing my hair, one of them came out of my ear. I heard it on the floor of the tub, and before I could clear my face of shampoo, open my eyes, and retrieve it, it washed down the drain. I was really upset about it, but there was nothing I could do to fix it. When I came downstairs, I told my mom about it and she just laughed and was like "Oh no", my sister overheard and she was like "Well, let's hope that that one makes it to the ocean and nothing eats it like all the other ones." Jerks.
And that is why sea turtles will never simply be awesome creatures that live in the sea to me.
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