Thesis, Fishmael and Connyclusion

Some of you may have noticed that we have a new buddy in the WRC! Well actually, we have three new buddies. Hiding in a little spot behind the printer live Thesis, Fishmael, and Connyclusion, the three WRC fish. As you may have noticed, these three fish have writing related names. Thesis, well Thesis’ name is pretty straightforward,  Fishmael from the narrator in the book Moby Dick, and Connyclusion, our female version of the word “conclusion”, regardless of it’s sex (we don’t really know). 

Now, this might seem like an odd blog post, because it revolves around fish, but there is a reason we got them. You see, last semester we were notified that the WRC would have a change of look and that we’d be getting new furniture. Our supervisors kindly asked us to think of things that we could bring to help liven the place up, and my naturalistic mind went straight to plants. I love plants, especially succulents, but I’m a murderer. A warm hearted, loving, plant murderer who either over or under waters any member of the Plantae Kingdom. With this in mind I still thought bringing plants would help our WRC feel more open and welcome. 

The idea of having a fish didn’t come to me until after I had been given permission to bring plants. I thought to myself, “Why not get a fish? A gold fish? Or maybe a betta fish?”, so I proceeded to ask our supervisor for one. To my surprise, she said yes! And thus the research began. I’d ask people what kind of fish they wanted and if we should get real or fake plants. I would spend countless hours on Pinterest looking up what living conditions different fish needed and which other fish they lived peacefully with. In the end we decided on a betta fish who we named Thesis M. Wright. But lazy as I am, I didn’t want to clean his bowl often. So, I decided on getting a simple bottomfeeder, Fishmael. Well, Fishmael didn’t clean much and I proceeded to get our last member, Connyclusion, the fun and fast ghost shrimp  that now lives in the same bowl as the other two. 

The reason the fish have become such an important part of the WRC is because of what they show us as tutors: to work together and share responsibilities. All of us feed them and we tend to them too. We all contributed to buying them and together bought the supplies for his tank. If the need food, someone gets food, if they need plants, we get plants,  if they need water conditioner, someone will bring water conditioner. The fish belong to all of us and we all take care of them equally. It’s a lot of fun to watch how we  interact with him too. After only a few weeks our little buddy, Thesis, has learned to jump at our fingers and follow us against the glass. Connyclusion just roams around and jumps from  one plant to the next, and Fishmael, well Fishmael just sticks to the ruins in the tank, literally. 

I invite you to come in and visit  us one of these days, even if it’s just to see the fish, so you can get to know our center a little. There are a lot of resources people can use here, tutors, handouts, books, computers, and even printing. You can even come in just to find a quiet spot to study! If nothing else, or if you just want to, you can come in and get to know Thesis, Fishmael, and Conclusion. 

By Catalina Chicas, FCC Writing and Reading Center Tutor