My experience with nature

Now I'm going to take a little time to tell you more about myself and my previous experiences with nature.
I have always loved the outdoors. From before I can even remember I have been collecting shells from the beach and exploring the tide pools. My family loved to go to the coast whether it be in Washington or Oregon and we always found some great places to explore. We frequented beaches, forests, anywhere we could go to see some nature. My dad would point out different animal and plant species along our way on our adventures and I begun to get as excited about seeing all these things as he was. He was a biology major (specific for fisheries) at the University of Washington and loved to share his knowledge with us kids as much as he could. Now that I am a biology major at UW just like my dad, I love nature even more because of the knowledge I have acquired.

The most infuriating part of our local adventures into nature was when we were in the car and my dad would try to point out wildlife along the way. I could never see what he had spotted. Deer, birds, small animals. I had the hardest time see what he saw. It happened so much that it began to be a family joke. Instead of giving up I tried harder and harder to see all these animals. This ignited my love for animals and for being in nature in general. Every sighting I made excited me to my core. Now, I love going to the beach, the zoo, on hikes, anywhere I can experience the outdoors.

One of my favorite memories from my childhood was when my dad and I went fishing on the Green River. My dad had made me my own fishing pole complete with purple and gold decorations. It was only a kids size fishing pole, so there was a low expectation of me catching anything.

The best place to fish was out in the middle on a little island, but I was too small to make it out there on my own so my dad had to backpack me out into the river. It was the most amazing thing. The water was clear, the trees were rustling in the wind, and my dad and I were just enjoying our day on the river together.

All of a sudden my pole bent down pretty quickly. I did everything I was told to do when a fish was on. My dad saw what was happening and immediately thought that my hook and line were snagged on a rock. He took over in order to get it off, but then realized that there was indeed a fish on. The fish jolted upstream and into the sun and we could see it shining in all its glory underneath the water.
He gave me back the pole to reel it in, but it was such a big fish that I couldn't handle it on my own. My dad reeled in my fish and I have never been more proud. That was the day I caught my first and last steelhead salmon.

All of these experiences when I was younger are what inspired my love for biology and for nature in general.