More Boluses to Dissect Finally, I had found a volunteer opportunity at the Long Marine Lab, a marine biology research facility at UC Santa Cruz! I envisioned swimming with dolphins, or perhaps studying behavioral patterns of decorator crabs. But when I discovered the nature of my work on the first day of volunteering, my excitement turned to disappointment: I’d be picking through albatross boluses, the indigestible materials they cough up before going to sea. Sure enough, after three hours...

Halfway through my sophomore year, I switched high schools from Kirby (a private school) to PCS (a public charter school). This switch resulted in some important changes to my high-school career. First, I had to start two AP classes halfway through the year (World History and Biology) because the new school (PCS) did not offer the non-AP equivalents that I had been taking at Kirby. This did not affect my GPA or my AP scores, but it did mean I...