Shayle Matsuda

I wanted to get muddy kid.

But when I got to college, I kind of went a different science route.

I studied water policy and sustainable organic farming.

And that was something that I was really into and really excited about.

Marine biology wasn't something I thought I could really do.

I ended up actually pursuing a different path.

I had a dual degree in environmental science and women's studies.

I went the second route and worked with youth in nature in underserved communities.

I kind of got to this point, you know, my little bit later 20s.

I decided to, you know, quit my job and move out of my house and sell all of my stuff and travel and figure that out.

And something that happened for me on that trip was I finally decided to learn to scuba dive.

I'm a really claustrophobic person, so I kind of put that off for a while.

And I really explicitly remember, you know, that first time I descended into the water.

And this was in Thailand.

And I remember, like, being...

so overwhelmed with how beautiful all the corals were and how this environment, like different than just snorkeling, just like opened up in a really three-dimensional dynamic way.

And then I also remember seeing a lot of garbage on the reef too.

And so I was having a lot of, I was having these like, you know, push-pull moments of being like so overwhelmed with the beauty around me and so curious about, you know, what these animals were, what, what,

What is this environment that I'm in?

And looking at everything, but also being really struck by how polluted it was as well.