Little Inklings 2023

26 A CHANGE FOR THE WORST By: Olivia Gomez ’27 The sound of strident chirping and cracking intensifies as I slip away from the darkness of sleep and into the real world. I look at the remains of my egg as I am finally released from my miniature coffin and into the fresh, salty beach air. Even though I was freed from my shell, I was compacted in the sand by copious baby hawksbill turtles like me, yet I have never felt freer. I wanted to stay in my safe, complacent position in the cushion-like sand, unlike my relatives who were already trying to make their way out of the hole. Watching them, a perturbing feeling washed over me. In my short life span, this seemed to me as its culmination. What motivated them to leave this serenity? But, I had to make a choice; one that would dictate the rest of my life. Dubiously, I crawled out of the hole and onto the flat, sand beach in an aggregation of my brothers and sisters. A faint squeal comes from the right as one baby is lifted off the ground by a seagull. I was aghast at the sight, raising my head to follow it into the air. My eyes land on the covey of birds above my head. The inclination to survive overcame me. I felt like a doll with no control over my body. My pace changed to go as rapidly as my flippers would take me. The water was within reach as I closed my eyes and let my body take me to safety. A cooling sense fell upon me as I was surrounded by a protective layer of water, safe from my attackers. My eyes opened to take in my new home, the Indian Ocean. I was still immured by turtles, who were swimming vigorously away from the battlefield we just crossed. For 48 consecutive hours, I practiced the same swimming motion until I eventually arrived in the deep sea, protected from the majority of my predators, or so my naive self believed. I have lived peacefully in the endless ocean. It has become my perfect home. I have never regretted my decision to leave that sand whole since the day I set my shell here. To me, it was a utopian place, until I noticed a yarn barrier cloud my vision, and I started to swim upward. Deja vu hit me as I remembered what it felt like to be attacked by those birds. Yet, in this instance, there was no escape, unlike how the ocean was my safe haven. I was hoisted out of the salty sea and onto a large boat. My breath was restricted by some netting around my neck. With my last breaths, I tossed and turned feeling hopeless. Black figures blocked the sunlight as they loomed over me seeing what pain they have inflicted. Now, I wish I stayed in my force field of sand forever. I made a change for the worst that cost me my life.