We all remember back in grade school, when the teacher would ask “what do you want to
do when you grow up?” and whether your answer was astronaut, firefighter, or
veterinarian, they would brush it off as an idle childhood dream. I believe
those childhood dreams help shape who you are and what type of career
choices you make as an adult.
I was the veterinarian. I knew I wanted to help animals and what better way than to cure the sick and heal the wounded. As you get older you figure out certain things about Yourself — what you can and can’t handle emotionally.
There was this one day in particular that I remember. I was about thirteen, a
couple of my siblings and I had just been to the dentist, which is always one of the worst days of the year. We were in the car, with our puffy cheeks, some filled with Novocaine others with cotton, and there I was thinking we had gone through the worst, there is nothing worse than going to the dentist right? I found out that day in my mother’s car, on our way home that there was indeed something worse than going to the dentist. We had gone about a block when my mother looked over at me and my siblings, she had that look in her eyes — you know the look when she’s about to say something
bad “ Muffy died this morning”, those words still ring in my ears to this day, you see
Muffy was our ten year old cocker spaniel, that we‘ve raised from a puppy. That was
when I realized that maybe being a veterinarian wasn’t the best career choice for me, I had always concentrated on curing the sick and healing the wounded, but what happens
when they die?
In the years since my dogs death I have contemplated on what I wanted to
do as a career. At first I fantasized about starting a wildlife reserve, I’ve always been fascinated with large cats and figured I could help out the endangered ones, but then I thought about all the costs for the land, upkeep, and food. I then thought, “what if I help countless millions of species by concentrating on the cause and effect of global warming?” which has brought me to my current career path. I want to help put large coal and oil companies out of business, to make way for a future where everything is run on renewable energy ( solar, wind, and hydraulic power). We would have fields of solar panels, and wind mills instead of large power plants billowing out tons of pollution on a daily basis. It is my dream that our children will live in a world where we no longer need to drain our planet’s natural resources to make advances in technology. Where cars, houses, and planes are lined with solar panels efficient enough to power them completely. I know it might seem like a bit of a leap from helping small animals to harvesting natural energy, but to me its that same childhood dream, just on a grander scale.