why do I love the aquarium?

OK so you know how at like the zoo all the animals are in cages with other types of animals of the same kind? Like the zebras are with other zebras, and monkeys with other monkeys. OK yes you do have some mixing of species, like the giraffes and zebra maybe in a large pasture together. But if there is cross contamination it’s very mild. I mean nobody expects that a lion and monkey would be in the same cage, and able to live in harmony and joy right? I mean that's ludicrous. Well at the aquarium you expect that. You have this huge tank where like 80 different species of life co-exist together and some of them are prey and dangerous and can eat the others. But it’s OK. It’s like one joyous, happy, aquarium family. I know, this is like the dumbest reason, and has this strange naive child like view of a society, that's all peace love and happiness. I know... But it makes me happy to go there and see it. I love when you get to watch other creatures figure out things that has taken us generations to do and in a lot of cases haven't even gotten fully yet. Like all live together in one big happy society. The aquarium just seems perfect. You could go there in the worst of moods, feeling so low and crappy, you'll walk in, see all the bright colors, and happy fishes and corals and then magically whatever you felt going is all gone, and all you feel is happiness. I know this is the longest dorkiest answer on the planet but I can't help it. It’s like the thing for me, you know that thing, and I mean you know right.

It’s funny… I didn't always like the aquarium. So my father was a marine biologist and a large part of my childhood was spent around water. We went to oceans, coasts, beaches, many many tide pools, pretty much anything water related. I think I swam before I could walk. This was my father’s passion. The ocean and I share this is so many ways like I have mentioned before. But to the point about the aquarium, so whenever we went to a new city or country we  always went to the aquarium automatically. The thing is that going was an all day event. My father would know hundreds and hundreds of random facts about every imaginable fish on the planet, and he would tell them to us as we stood there watching them and not be able to move on until he was done. It was annoying for a kid with a very short attention span who" just wanted to see the sea otters" like I was.  Anyways I guess I didn't really start to LOVE the aquarium until after my dad died. I remember I went once with my brother a year or so after he passed away, and we were done in like an hour. It was funny because we had never done an aquarium that fast before and without all these dumb facts it took no time at all. So yeah I guess another big part of why I love the aquarium is because it always reminds me of my dad and it makes me happy to know that I got to have something that he imprinted into my very existence from this day on.

My goal in life is to travel around the world and see all the aquariums. Someday I hope to be able to do that.  You know that they have hotels where your room is under water so it’s truly an aquarium all around you. Yeah I would like to go to one of those places. But until then I always try to take one in where ever I go to a new town.