My name is Angel Morales I am a freshmen at Cal State LA and my Heal The Bay experience went something like this. It was October 18, one of my favorite months. It was a beautiful cloudy day. I thought it was going to rain so I took my windbreaker. Heading down to the beach it looked like it was going to drizzle because the clouds looked dark grey and heavy. As soon as I arrived at the beach I heard the sound of the waves crashing and saw the seagulls gliding around. There was a triathlon or something around that. At first glance the beach did not seem so dirty to me but when I put my glasses on my perspective changed. I saw trash all over the beach and around the hills. It hit around 9:00am and we received instructions from the people conducting the cleaning and we were advised not to pick up syringes because of its hazards so they gave us gloves and trash bags to clean up the beach. My group and I first started on the beach, in the beginning I picked up bits of paper, and plastic pieces. As my group and I proceeded we came across pieces of sharp glass, multiple Styrofoam pieces, plastic wrappers, and to be exact 92 cigarette butts. At one point we even found an 18-pack carton. It’s amusing how people break the rules and don’t clean up after themselves. I have always wondered why people are so selfish. What I noticed at the beach, there was a lot of trash around the fire pits and I also noticed there was coal still warm from the day prior in one of the pits. I tried to push it over but the fear of burning my self and creating more trash made me leave it alone. My legs were starting to become tired but luckily it was time to meet back with the people in charge. We got to share what we found the most which were the cigarette butts. Overall I had a great experience and it was a real eye opener. It made me think about all the sea critters and how some of the trash that is not thrown correctly is ending up on the beach. Seeing the boats from a distance, cleaning up the beach and seeing the ocean was a good experience. I wished I saw a seal but, there is always a chance next time!