I really only ever wanted to be a dolphin trainer, so I got a job freshman year in my university’s marine science department.

Upon realizing there were no dolphins to train on campus, I switched to an art major.

But I liked working in the labs and spending weekends on a boat collecting seawater samples, so I kept the job.

4 years later, I had gone from “Glassware Washer” to “Research Assistant” to the legendary marine scientist, Dr. Carol Arnosti.

(I still washed glassware.)

When the article for this project we had been working on got published in 2017, she included me as an author.

This is how I found out: