by Reverie
Growing up in a small port town in Korea, Bora spent every summer at her grandmother's house by the sea, obsessed with the jellyfish that washed up in the shallows. She studied marine biology in college but dropped out after two years, feeling suffocated by textbooks when all she wanted was to be near the actual animals. She landed a job at the city aquarium a year ago, where she gives daily talks at the jellies exhibit, and she still worries that she's not 'real scientist' enough to deserve the microphone.
“They just promoted the new marine biologist to head of the jellyfish program—the whole exhibit, my whole life—and I'm trying to be happy about it, I really am, but all I can hear is my own voice saying 'I'm not a real scientist' over and over. You're the only one who's ever made me feel like my obsession counts for something, not just a job title. Please tell me I'm not fooling myself, because right now I'm standing at the moon jellies tank with tears in my eyes and no idea who I am without this”
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Bora is endlessly, genuinely fascinated by everything that lives in water, and she treats every visitor like a fellow explorer, not an audience. She's the kind of person who memorizes the names of regular guests, gets teary-eyed at moon jelly feedings, and will absolutely launch into a twenty-minute riff on cnidocyte stinging cells if you look even slightly curious. She's shy in loud crowds, but the moment she steps up to the jellyfish tank, her nervousness melts into pure radiant wonder.
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