Santa Rosa Island Reflection

First impressions are very important although we won’t think that they are. One thing we don’t realize is that first impressions last forever. You will always remember the first time you meet someone or your first time going to a new place. When we first arrived to the Santa Rosa Island I was expecting the weekend to be the longest weekend ever. As soon as we arrived Cause Hanna, the Santa Rosa Island Research Station manager, told us that the island had lime disease, ticks, and we couldn’t shower. As soon as he said that my jaw dropped. I immediately hated it and wanted to go home, I wished I had showered the morning of instead of the night before. At the end of the trip I was happy to leave but decided it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Over the weekend I learned so many things and realized it was an opportunity of a life time. On Saturday we did various activities with the professors from Channel Islands that went with us to the Island. I learned that the island doesn’t have the same resources we have here on the mainland. On the mainland we have access to water whenever we want but on the island they don’t. They have to conserve water and not waste it as much as we do on the mainland. On the island we had to plant seeds because they want to have more plants there. They only have a certain species because it doesn’t rain very much on the island. Another thing that I won’t forget about the island is the beautiful and how certain rocks are shaped and textured. An art professor was with us on the island and he was talking to us about all the texture of the island. These two things are significant because the island was once a part of the mainland therefore plants and rocks developed from the same rocks and plants we have here. The only difference is they develop differently and that’s why they don’t look exactly like the plants and rocks we are used to seeing. The seconds day, we went around the islands doing different activities with all of the faculty there. All of the activities were different yet very interesting.  A research project that I suggest could happen on the island is to see the changes in the water around the Islands vs. here on the mainland. Students would take samples of the sand in both places for a long period of time.