When I heard “Tomorrow we’re going to clean the beach”, I immediately said can I come? The answer was yes, as I thought it would be.

So I went to bed early last night to wake up at 7 AM today, Saturday, so we could be at Playa Grande- El Paraíso at 8 to help clean one of our beaches here in Puerto Rico for World Clean Up Day.

Reserva Natural- Playa Grande, El Paraíso

I was happy to see it was not just a small group, on the contrary it was a lot of people at all of the beaches, Including the one I went to. There were groups from different businesses and schools; we even ran into a group from my high school. I remember doing this when I was in high school and I was very happy to see that they still participate these events.

We each got a latex glove and a garbage bag when we got there and we’re given instructions to be careful about what we picked up, get help from the group organizers if we found anything big or dangerous and to let our group leader know of everything we picked up so the could keep a count.

As I started walking I quickly started to find little pieces of foam. Most of what I picked up was foam. I also found straws and straw wrappers, cans, water bottles, bags, juice bags, cables, a sock, and beer bottles. People in my group found a child’s Crocs (the shoe).

These are only the things I found and some things I saw other people find, but if we just found a shoe and a sock, I can’t even imagine the amount of junk people found all over the island.

It’s sad that we have all this knowledge about all the harm we are doing to the world by leaving trash on the beach and in nature yet, there is still trash everywhere. I even found Oreo Cookies wrappers left on the floor when I got back to the parking lot where the event had started. That means the people who were cleaning the trash, left their own trash there. I can’t judge because it could have just fallen and nobody noticed but I just thought it was a little hypocritical.

Anyway, a lot of good was done today by all the people who showed up to help clean up. If we love our beaches and everything around us, we have to keep it cleaned and help protect it. We need to do every little thing we can do to protect our home.

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Published by mariacristinasanfeliu

I’m an aspiring writer still looking for exactly what I want to write about, with a lot of creativity, imagination and desire to write. I studied Writing and Rhetoric at Syracuse University where I explored many different sides of writing through my classes and extracurricular activities in order to narrow my search for an identity as a writer. I have written for Citrus TV Noticias and La Voz magazine, both of which gave me the chance to explore different mediums in which to write in. Through Citrus TV Noticias I also gained experience in translating from English to Spanish and vice versa, which is also something that I would be interested in working on since I am fluent in both of these languages. I was also an intern at Syracuse University Press where I got hands on experience in what goes into actually editing and publishing a book. Through out the last four years I have faced a lot of challenges, which helped chape the person I am today. After being in a tragic car accident, being in comma, having a Traumatic Brain Injury, and being in therapy for over a year, I am a new me, willing to face challenges and knowing how to deal with them. I want to write about my accident and life after it to help others, show them it can be done and help in any way I can.

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