light pollution

Haha, it's kind of funny how I'm writing my second consecutive post at around the same time as the first one (2:19 AM). 

Now, I promise it's not because my sleep schedule is messed up, but rather, I've got an excellent explanation for today. Mmm, so since I'm graduating real soon, my grandma came all the way from China to live with us for a few months leading up to the ceremony. She came around mid-February, and her visa only allows up to six months, so in the summer, I'm taking her back. 

Today, we decided to take her to visit the bioluminescent bay in La Parguera. Fun fact: There are only five bioluminescent bays worldwide, and Puerto Rico houses three of them. That's pretty awesome, isn't it? These are basically bodies of water inhabited by these microscopic organisms called dinoflagellates that have this glow-in-the-dark effect when agitated by movement in the water surrounding them. As you can imagine, you can't really see them with any other light source around, so you need to be in a secluded warm-water ecosystem with as much darkness as possible to see them shine the best. 

La Parguera is about 2.5 hours away from where we live, so we got out of the house at around 4 PM, but somehow, we were in traffic ON THE HIGHWAY for about 30 minutes going at snail pace because they were fixing the roads. An original three-lane highway turned to one lane at some point which was downright unfortunate. But then, after, everything smoothed out, and the views as we drove along were absolutely unmatched. The clouds, the mountains, the mist, everything just looked so sublime. OH AND the road itself was actually really smooth, unlike the bumpy pothole-abundant roads that we typically have over here. (I broke a PR btw, finally got to 110 on an open stretch heheh)

The bio bay itself was the same as usual. Nothing too exciting, but maybe that's just because I've been a few times already. You get on a boat and drive out into an area where you can't see any manmade lights and it's basically complete darkness except for the moon. The moon was very pretty tonight. The dinoflagellates don't emit a whole lot of light, and after all the hurricanes we've had over the past few years, there's less of them than ever, so you can also bet that it's dimmer than ever. 

The beautiful full moon was a trade-off for not being able to see the microorganisms at their brightest because, well because of light pollution. Same reason as to why we can barely see any stars in the city. Far too many city lights take away our ability to perceive the natural lights of the world. Only in darkness can we see the stars. This is something that I've been thinking about lately actually, not in the literal sense, but more metaphorically. 

When a lot of good things stack up, it'll be very bright, but it'll be hard to pick out any individual to call the best. Over time, they'll all start to feel the same, average, even. That's scary, isn't it? Will we lose track of good things because there are too many of them? Will we lose track of good friends because we make more? Will we forget meaningful moments because we constantly make new ones? Isn't it scary that we'll no longer be bright in an ocean full of stars? 

I can't answer all of those questions. However, I will say a few words on the last one. Probably many of my fellow graduates this year will have the same fear of no longer being standout cynosures when they get to their university in the fall. "I'll be a no-name college student, just one of many. I've lost all the progress I've built, nothing then matters now. I have to start anew and this time, I don't know if I can climb to where I once was because everyone is amazing." That's a thought process that's pretty easy to fall into. 

One thing worth noting is that even if there is light pollution, that doesn't diminish the fact that the stars are still there. The stars themselves don't fade, even if they are harder to notice. So don't feel discouraged if your work goes unnoticed for a while. As long as you keep your flame burning passionately, then one day, you'll be seen. 

I wanted to discuss the ISEF trip, but it looks like that will have to wait for another post. Thank you for reading, and bonne nuit.