Hey All
      Just to combat my extreme boredom ( even though I should be studying but
I'm not) I am just randomly going to ask a question. How did everyone get into
shells, Collecting, Malacology etc.
 
     Ok I guess I'll start. When I was about 4 my parents  took my older
brother and I to a nature center in  Deleware. They had this Busycon Carica (
which I was told was a Conch... what can ye do when yer 4) in a touch tank
there. The naturalist was telling my parents about horseshoe crabs and my
brother was extremly interested in that. I was ignoring them and was just
fascinated by this snail. I was hooked from then on. Later in that vacation
week we went into a shell store to get my brother a hermit crab ( which only
lived about 4 days after we went home) I found the shells in various bins
there and was in heaven! My 'rents got me a whelk because it was what I
wanted( no hermit crabs for me LOL)  It was my first shell and I still have it
on my dresser. From then on whenever we went to the beach I was always on the
look out for shells. To me it wasn't about the shells as much as it was about
the animal. I wanted to find another whelk that was alive.  I never wanted to
keep it, I just wanted to see it. I don't know what it was but something about
this slimey creature fascinated me.  When I was 8  I picked up my first shell
book.. Kingdom of the Seashell by R. Tucker Abbott. Since then I read just
about anything I can get my hands on that is about shells, snails and
mollusks.
  Since about the 8th grade I knew I wanted to be a malacologist. I am now a
sophomore in college and I want it more than ever. Someone once told me " Find
something you love and figure out a way to get paid for it." I have the first
part done.      My eventual goal is to be a professor ( I don't do High
School!!!!!!)  and share this fantastic science with people. It has such a
human aspect. People go to the beach and they find shells. When you ask them
about the shell most don't have a clue where it comes from. I want to educate
to people about them.
  I used to teach a science camp for kids. I did a week long unit on shells.
My first question was " where do shells come from" Kids all have their own
ideas and its fun to see the creativity flowing in their blood. Most of them
eventually answered  that shells come from Hermit Crabs. At the end of that
week most of the kids were able to tell you ( in kid terms) that shells came
from animals called mollusks. I got some pretty funny little explanations how
shells were made but they have the basic idea. I know that I taught those kids
something that they will probably keep in the back of their minds for life.
Pardon the random aspect of this but there is nothing on TV( including the
weather channel and MTV ), I have no life, and all my friends just went back
to school. I think I will go study now. Nah, I'm goin to bed ( how bad is that
10:30 on a saturday night)
 
 
Sarah ___@'
Silver Spring MD USA
http://www.geocities.com/Southbeach/Tidepool/8845