Once Upon a Time at the Zoo

Once upon a time I worked at a zoo. I really enjoyed working with the animals; I enjoyed working outdoors. But it came to an end when I was fired. The purpose of this essay is not to go over the reasons I was fired. Those reasons for my termination are up for debate but what is on my mind is what I did to look forward after that termination. I thought about what career path I should take and what kind of work I was best suited for? I felt that I was well suited for the zoo job. I had a BS in biology. I enjoyed the animals and working with them, but after being fired I felt returning to a zoo job somewhere else was a dead end.

So I was stuck with the question “What do I do now?” I found a job at a bakery soon after the zoo. My manager there was one of the best managers I’ve ever worked for. I discovered that the people you work with can make the difference in a job. Building those relationships can make for a more positive work place. Even though relationships are important I didn’t think that this was the career for me.

Working the job at the zoo, I had my weaknesses but I didn’t see my termination coming. I’ve come to feel a degree uncertainty on how well I’m doing in my job. I think that this had a lot to do with my relationships that I had with those above me. If I knew what my boss at the zoo thought of me I could have seen it coming, whatever the true reasons for firing me.

I learned to bake bread as well. I’ve kept this skill as a hobby. It is refreshing to be involved in something that judged on the actual outcome. Either bread comes out good or it turns out bad. It is clear how well I’ve done. It is a good feeling not to be judged personally but to be judged on your skill. There is some subjective judgment but overall one has something concrete to point too when being judged. Some other jobs don’t have anything concrete to point to; they only have abstractions to claim to have done well and then they may have someone else claim that they didn’t do well. I think it is important in a job to have something concrete to point to and say I did that and I did a good job.

Another aspect to work that I think is extremely necessary in all professions but very rare to find is a mentor. I’m not sure why this no longer consider something we need. Maybe most people feel they can do everything on their own. That they think they need no one to help them get ahead. An attitude of “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.” I think it also that no one wants to mentor. I’m not sure they feel they don’t have time or there is a fear of next generation of workers or a feeling of I did it on my own and it was rough; so we got to treat the new kid rough until he earns his stripes.

Before considering a career in nursing I thought about becoming a veterinarian. I volunteered at a vet’s office and instead of being a mentor and helping me; the vet was a jerk to me and took advantage of my desire to be mentored by him. As I’ve searched for a career I’ve found more discouragement than encouragement. Some of this discouragement came from those I would have thought should have been encouraging. Maybe this because I’m ill suited to any profession, but to me it is part of an attitude in society that I’m unable to define. I think it is related to individualism in this country. Individualism to a degree is good but I don’t think to the extreme that we don’t help anyone else it becomes an evil. I could have made a good vet with the appropriate encouragement, but at the time I had just got married, was getting older and didn’t have time to struggle getting started in a new career no matter how good I was going to be in it.

I really dislike the necessity of reinventing myself every 2 or 3 years. I really don’t know if it will ever end. I’ve done so many jobs and had so many education experiences. I’ve worked landscaping, grocery clerk, factory work, BS in Biology, the zoo, a bakery, a restaurant cook, a bookseller, grant assistant, and I’m not about to complete a degree in nursing and enter the nursing work force. Then what? I’m considering going on to get a master’s in public health. I’m jealous of those that know exactly what they wanted to do from the time they were children.

I don’t think I understood when I lost my job at the zoo that I would have to continue on indefinitely looking for my niche in the work force and that I would feel like Sisyphus as I go from one career to another on into the eternities. Now back to rolling the rock up the hill again.