Kids
David: Swimming with the Sharks
At twelve years old, David already knows what he wants to be when he grows up: a marine biologist. He wants to study ocean life. He thinks the ocean is cool because so many different animals live there. There are lots of animals that haven’t even been found yet.
This past summer, David got to see eels, piranhas, sharks, and many more ocean creatures at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. He was on vacation with his dads, Greg and Stillman, and his four brothers, Arthur, Javonte, Dionte, and Allen. The entire family traveled to Michigan, but Greg took David and his oldest brother, Arthur, on a special one-day trip to the aquarium in Chicago to see the marine animals.
Of all the ocean animals, sharks are David’s favorite. He has a lot of books about sharks, but he reads about them on the Internet as well. The Disney Channel also has marine life shows that he likes to watch. David loves sharks’ habitat—where they live—and what they do. He thinks sharks are interesting because they’re dangerous and unpredictable. Also, their teeth are pretty neat. David has a necklace with a shark tooth that he always wears around his neck.
When he’s not at school or studying sharks, David likes to play basketball, soccer, and football for fun. He’s played on a soccer team for nine years, but he also likes to play one-on-one with dad or a brother. Who usually wins those games of one-on-one? David says, “I do.”
David rides his bike and his skateboard around his neighborhood in Lincoln, Nebraska. He’s been able to skateboard for a couple of years now, and he can do some cool tricks. One of the tricks he can do is called an “Ollie.” When a skateboarder does an “Ollie,” he or she pops the skateboard into the air. The skateboard stays stuck to the skateboarder’s feet as he or she jumps. David can also do a “manual.” This is where the skateboarder lifts the front of the skateboard off the ground while riding, yet keeps the back of the skateboard on the ground. These are just a couple of the tricks David can do.
Nebraska is a land-locked state far away from the ocean, so David looks forward to family vacations so he can see more aquariums and learn more about the sea.
