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My favorite color is light blue or teal.
My favorite food is M&Ms!
My favorite novel is either Out of my Mind or Blended, both by Sharon Draper.
My favorite book series is Harry Potter.
My favorite author is Rick Riordan.
My favorite thing to do is read or creative write.
My favorite movie is Despicable Me.
My favorite subject is ELA.

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My best friend's name is Claire Sullivan. I have a lot of great memories with her. This past summer she moved out to Utah, but we were able to visit them and I was so glad to see her again. We have been best friends for almost our whole lives. She and I always have such a great time when we're together and I miss her a lot. This is a photo of us at a sleepover. We are really crazy!!

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The best part of my summer was traveling to Utah. My family and I were able to spend time with our family out there and eat at new places, hike in the mountains, and overall have fun with our family. When we were out there my cousin had a baby and now I have a second cousin! 😊

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I am most excited for all of my electives because I feel like I have some really great electives. I am excited to learn all sorts of new things and grow to become a better student.

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I really like the ocean and all of the different creatures living there. I especially like how they each are different beause of all of the different habitats they live in. Here is a link to an article about the depths of the ocean.

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Thousands have climbed Mount Everest, and a handful of people have walked on the moon. But reaching the lowest part of the ocean? Only three people have ever done that, and one was a U.S. Navy submariner.

In the Pacific Ocean, somewhere between Guam and the Philippines, lies the Marianas Trench, also known as the Mariana Trench. At 35,814 feet below sea level, its bottom is called the Challenger Deep - the deepest point known on Earth. In fact, to put it into perspective, think about the Titanic, which was found 12,600 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean - nearly 2.4 miles down.

The Challenger Deep is nearly three times deeper than that.

Testing Pressure

Only three people have ever made it to the Challenger Deep. The first two did it 59 years ago this week: Navy Lt. Don Walsh, a submariner, and explorer Jacques Piccard.

Walsh's engineering background allowed him to be a test pilot for the Trieste, a deep-diving research submersible purchased on behalf of the Navy. The rig was specially equipped with 5-inch-thick steel walls to withstand immense pressures - eight tons of pressure per square inch, to be specific, which is like 2,365 pounds sitting on a person's fingernail.

On Jan. 23, 1960, Walsh and Piccard made history when they made the five-hour, 6.78-mile odyssey to the world's deepest-known point.

A Different World

What did they find there? Walsh talked about his experience in an interview with the Office of Naval Research, so we'll let him explain:

"As we approached the seafloor, we could see it coming up, and we did see about a foot-long flatfish, like a halibut or sole - small. But that told us quite a bit, just that one glimpse, because that's a bottom-dwelling form - two eyes on one side - and if there's one, there's more. That tells you there's also sufficient oxygen and food at that depth because they're bottom dwelling," Walsh said.

"We did not see anything at the bottom once we landed because the bottom sediment stirred up, and it was like somebody painted our viewport white," he continued. "We spent a half-hour on the bottom, and the rest of the time coming up. And that was it."

That might not seem like much to some, but it opened up a whole new world for explorers.

Undersea Exploration & the Navy

The Navy has always been interested in undersea exploration for navigation, scientific research, education and strategic purposes. In fact, by 1958, it funded nearly 90 percent of all U.S. oceanographic ventures.

The Trieste trip was the culmination of Project Nekton, a series of dives meant to test the viability of using manned craft at extreme depths to study marine life and how temperature, pressure and sound interact at great depths, among other scientific questions.

Whether the Navy is diving, collecting scientific data, investigating shipwrecks or testing autonomous underwater vehicles, this mission continues to evolve and has led to collaborations with many in the civilian scientific community.

Fun Facts

In case you were curious, the Trieste is now part of the undersea exploration exhibit at the National Museum of the U.S. Navy in Washington.

Since its bowels-of-the-earth voyage, only one person has returned to the Challenger Deep: explorer and filmmaker James Cameron in 2012.

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Hitting Bottom: Submariner Explored Deepest Part of Ocean

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Thousands have climbed Mount Everest, and a handful of people have walked on the moon. But reaching the lowest part of the ocean? Only three people have ever done that, and one was a U.S. Navy submariner. In the Pacific Ocean, somewhere between Guam and the Philippines, lies the Marianas Trench, also known as the Mariana Trench.

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I love to do Cross Country. I have good friends on the team and I like to run.