I am an 12 year old girl who grew up in Ohio. I discovered my passion for the sea turtles in 2007, on an annual vacation to Florida, while visiting our favorite aquarium: Mote Marine Laboratory. I decided I had been looking at the same things for 7 years, and I asked one of the biologists if I could help out. She kindly invited me on a release of sea turtle hatchlings later that night. I agreed and met the volunteers on the beach. When I got there, expecting to watch the release, one volunteer gave me a small bucket with a baby turtle in it. That night, I learned how to release baby turtles. I released a total of 8 of them. 2 days later, we were up late at our beach resort waiting for my Uncle and cousins to come down for the 2nd week of our vacation. When he arrived, he asked me: “Is this your friend?” and he pointed to a tiny turtle hatching crawling down the hallway. Because I had just participated in the hatchling release, I knew what to do: I went and got a bucket with wet sand and put the turtle inside. Later, I went outside to check on the turtle. There was another turtle next to the bucket. I added the newly found turtle in the bucket, and thought there may be more turtles about the resort. I grabbed a flashlight and hiked around the resort in the dark. As the sun came up, other visitors at the resort learned what I was doing and helped out. A couple people even found a hatchling and brought them to me. In the end, I found 22 baby sea turtle hatchlings. We alerted the Anna Maria Island Turtle Watch and they came to get the turtles. Later that day, a newspaper reporter interviewed me and published an article about me in the local paper. It was from this point on I knew why I was on this earth. I was here for the Sea Turtles. Since that night, I have gotten involved in marine camps and got together with many turtle biologists. (Including the Biologist that directed me to the turtle release, whom I am friends with to this day.) Right now, the goal is to move to Florida, do well in school, and go to college to further my education. In the End, I will become the Marine Biologist I dream of.