Goin’ to the zoo, zoo ride, zoo ride, zoo ride. During my early years, and even now, I always wanted to visit the zoo. You may ask “what does this have to do with life planning”, and the answer is that those visits shaped my own wants and desires for my future. You see, through those visits, I became attached to those animals, I wanted to feel what they felt, see what they saw, I wanted to nurture them and fix them if they were hurt. I always felt bad that they were in a cage, away from nature, and that made my own life goals shift. I wanted to work with animals, watch them, feel them, study them, not in a zoo or a laboratory, but in the field, working side by side with colleagues who had the same burning passion for life that I did.
Now that I’ve effectively become an adult, my goals haven’t changed. I still plan to be a field researcher and though I don’t always agree with the animal’s living arrangements, I still visit the zoo whenever I can. As a matter of fact, as of writing this, my old habit of nature watching is returning to me. This desire, this will to prosper and see the natural world in all its beauty, no matter the location or time of day, is my own reason for living. As a man of science and of nature, I’m perfectly content in watching life’s natural flow, and in that my own quality of life improves. I’d feel content knowing that my own career would be a reflection of my own wants and desires, to see the world and all it’s beauty, is all the more reachable in my own lifetime.
Most people find great joy in household animals, such as cats and dogs, but I find my calling to be with exotic creatures. Though I find most enjoyable in their own right, the strange always excites me. That’s probably why my favorite animals are the Mantis Shrimp (look it up) and Komodo Dragon. One day I hope to work with these marvelous creatures up close, but I’ve got to clear high school first.