This past Friday, after going to an empowering march to raise awareness and
help end violence against women, I went to the aquarium.
With everything going on and all the activism projects we can partake in in
our free time, I sometimes forget that I like and need mindless activities in
my schedule too. I forgot how much I love aquariums; when I was little I used
to go all the time, and even throughout high school and college I usually find
my way to the New England Aquarium in Boston at least once a year with friends.
It was such a spontaneous decision to go, but I enjoyed my time there
immensely. We saw a feeding time for sting rays and some other sort of huge
fish – but not the sharks (they’re only fed on Sundays because they have really
slow metabolisms) – starfish, penguins, frogs, eels, clown fish, jelly fish,
hundreds of corals, anemones, shrimp, crabs, everything. The majority of
visitors were small children and their young parents, but of the two
demographics I felt more like the children – totally in awe of some of what I
saw and calling my friends over to see when I found something cool.
The aquarium wasn’t enlightening or some form of beautiful-but-terrible
thing I witnessed (unlike a lot of other things here in Cape Town). It didn’t
make me question my prior life at home or make me think about how I’m changing
as a person during my time here. It wasn’t ground shaking or help me see the
world through new eyes. It was a lot of creatures I’m already familiar with,
but that awed me nonetheless. It was the perfect break in my time here,
time to just relax and be a child – awed by starfish, poking sea creatures in
the touch pool.
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