Maria Bryan
Chicago, IL
2015, Junior, Creative Writing

Here, we have two stories. In these very different stories comes two ideas. The first, a disheveled ocean, with multiple failed attempts to clean the only planet we have. The water polluted, and it only being our faults. We thought that the death and destruction of our world was inevitable, and that the planet was only going in a bad direction. We didn’t try to help save the planet and the oceans. The amount plastic in the oceans was horrendous and it could not be taken back. We had destroyed our own planet. The second story, action was taken, and we began to respect our oceans and land. We realized that a little change in our everyday actions would make a difference. The oceans were cleaned up, and the animals that we thought would die off were thriving. The question is, are you willing to make these minor changes in your life to save the oceans?

Imagine, you didn’t know what the world was like and this was your first time outside. You walk down to the ocean and take off your shoes to walk in the sand. You take a deep breath of the ocean air and let the breeze refresh you. The calming sound of the waves crashing relaxes you into a serene state of mind. You can feel the sand slide and fill in between your toes when all of a sudden you feel something sharp poke your foot.

You quickly come back to your senses. You lift your foot, and you see a pointy piece of plastic sticking out of the sand. The glossy white piece if plastic is shinning and glistening. You decide to continue and return to your calm mindset when again, you step on a another piece of plastic. This one is similar, but it is blue, mat and has made in England printed on it. You lift your head, and you take a closer look at the sand surrounding you. For as far as you can see, there are little pieces if colored plastic scattered everywhere.

You decide to walk towards the water, thinking that there would be less plastic but instead you find something that is sickening. Laying the the wet sand is a bird feeding from two fish. At first you look at the fish with sorrow, but when you take a close look, you can see multiple pieces of plastic in the fish’s stomach. The birds bends down, pecks at the plastic, and swallows it. You suddenly realize that this isn’t the same beautiful and lively ocean you once knew. This is a dirty and polluted part of our planet that was mistreated, and has failed to survive.

You decide that you want to take a closer look at the ocean. You dive into the water and open your eyes. In the shallow water, you see little broken pieces of glass and multiple brands of water bottles scattered around the ocean floor. Scattered across the seabed, you see hundreds of cigarettes, eating utensils, and bottles.

As you swim deeper into the water, the light starts to disappear, and you can only see select rays of light burning thought the surface. Once you are deep enough, you can see the ocean floor come to life. Beneath you are vibrant orange, red, and pink corals that are the homes to many species. You are surprised by all of the different types of fish you see. Some fish are small, fast, and almost camouflage, but some slide thought the water with grace and pride. Their fins look exotic, and they move effortlessly through the heavy water. Looking around, it is obvious for you to see that these animals have made a home out of this ocean floor. Sadly, their home is slowly being destroyed, and encasing it are plastic bags. You can see how the plastic bag traps the fish inside it, and how it is helpless.

Then you think: is this really our world today? You realize that everywhere you look there is plastic and pollution. The sea animals are being affected negatively because of our actions. If you had used a reusable water bottle or a reusable bag when shopping, there would be one less piece of plastic in the ocean. Now imagine if everyone made a simple change like that. The oceans wouldn’t get the large amount of pollution they are getting now, and we could start cleaning up the oceans. The oceans could survive starting with you.

Now imagine you are in the same situation. You walk onto the beach and you can feel the clean stand slip and slide between your toes. You can see the sun glistening on the shiny white sand as you breath in the fresh cool ocean air. As you look down, you see beautiful sea shells of all different colors and shapes. Walking to the shore, you notice some birds swooping down to catch their prey, and you can see little fish swimming in the shallow water.

The surface of the water has a gold tint from the sun shining off of it, and the water is calmly flowing as one unit. The ocean is peaceful right now, as if there was barely any movement under the water.

Under the water, there is almost no plastic on the ocean floor. The fish live as they naturally were supposed to, and they are barely affected by our bad actions. There, swimming in the water, is a school of fish that we thought would go extinct. In the water, you can see the habitats that fish live in and have adapted too. The fish living in these habitats are thriving because they are untouched by harming substances or objects. Now, these fish don’t have to live under the constant threat of being harmed by plastic because we changed our habits.

Just now, you read two very different stories. One, a story which brought sorrow, and disgust to you mind. A story in which you wish to finish, but the details are so unbelievable that you keep reading. You were taken though a journey of what really happens after you throw your bottle into the ocean. Although you may little once or not at all every time you go to the ocean, others could little more. Even though you think one piece of plastics doesn’t matter, it does because all that plastic builds up and created a land fill of the ocean. The other story, you went on a journey of what the ocean would be like if plastic would not be thrown in the ocean. You saw the beauty and cleanliness of what it would be like if we decided to keep the ocean clean. It is up to you with what you do with what you have, and it may be easy to make the wrong choice and destroy our oceans, but making the right choice is one step close to a clean planet. Remember, this is our plastic, and these are our oceans.

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