Don’t Meet Your Heroes.

Even If They Are Turtles.

Photo by the author, Gulf of Mexico 2024.

The old adage, “Don’t meet your heroes, because they’re sure to disappoint you,” holds true even if your hero experience is silently swimming with an old sea turtle. In this case, though, the turtle didn’t disappoint me — I think I disappointed the turtle.

I love being outdoors. I love swimming and biking. I adore hiking into places I once thought only my dogs could scurry. Years ago while hiking in Zion, my son (then just twelve years old) and I scrambled up rock faces and into crevices just wide enough for us to slide through. It was glorious.

On my bucket list was swimming with sea turtles. These beautiful beings, sometimes close to a hundred years old, moving in blissful silence under tropical waters, fascinated me. Their quiet elegance and grace was something I very much wanted to observe, to be able to grasp onto and hold when I needed some of that quiet and calm in my life.

I’ve seen sea turtles of various sizes and ages in aquarium venues, of course. The Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquariaum has a gorgeous one. I now live in Baltimore, home of the National Aquarium, and it is spectacular. I could watch the graceful swimmers for hours at a time. They seem to fully embody the character of “wise, old turtle” that is in so…