The sunrise that made my daughter want to be a marine biologist

My daughter was twelve. She was going through a phase of being unimpressed by everything, as twelve-year-olds do. She did not want to be on this cruise. On our second morning I woke her up at 5:30am to watch the sunrise from the balcony. She groaned and complained and came outside in her blanket looking miserable. Then the sun broke the horizon and lit the entire ocean gold. A pod of flying fish erupted from the water directly below us, skimming the surface for what felt like forever. She grabbed my arm. She did not let go for ten minutes. She did not say a word. When it was over she looked at me and said she wanted to study the ocean. She is seventeen now and applying to marine biology programs. She wrote her college essay about this morning. Cabin 8102 on Wonder of the Seas changed my daughter's life.