Nature's Hideaway

I am a huge animal lover. I have been my entire life. Growing up, I watched only Animal Planet, begged my mom to take me to the zoo everyday, bought book upon book about animals, spent my days exploring the woods for animals and their tracks, and idolized The Crocodile Hunter. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was going to work with animals when I grew up. For one of my birthdays even (I can't remember which one), my mom got me a Behind-The-Scenes tour of the Minnesota Zoo - soooo cool!

When we were younger, my cousin and I would go over to these huge hills and woods and lake area by my house, and we would bring the video camera with us and make our own nature show. It was called, "Nature's Hideaway." We would record us tracking animal prints and we would bring over stuffed animals and hide them in the brush and use our camera to pretend they were real...yeah, we were kinda dorks. We even made a blooper reel at the end of the tape. My cousin and I were both going to spend our lives working at the same zoo. It was going to be great.

At first, I wanted to train Killer Whales. They were my favorite, and I watched Free Willy every chance I could get! But then I decided I didn't want to move out of Minnesota, and since there are no killer whales in Minnesota, I settled on becoming a dolphin trainer at the Minnesota Zoo. Then that dream molded into any kind of zoo worker, I didn't care - I just knew I wanted to work with animals. My junior year of high school, after all the talks and lessons about going to college, I somehow abandoned my lifelong dream and decided to be a teacher because I figured it was a little more realistic. Oh, and guess what? My cousin is in school to be a teacher now too...

I don't regret my decision. I love my major! I love working in schools and I love helping people, and, not to toot my own horn or anything, but I think I will be a great teacher. But lately, I have been wishing I was doing something with animals...

I am still as passionate about animals as ever, and now I'm second guessing my career choice. I know I will love being a teacher, but I can't help but think that I would love being a zoologist more. A small part of me really wants to change my major. What's holding me back? The fact that I am going to be a senior this year. I can't just throw everything I've done so far away. I know my credits wouldn't transfer, their all history credits. I'd have to find a new school because they don't have a zoology major at River Falls, which means leaving my job and my friends. And then there's the money. I've already dumped tens of thousands of dollars into becoming a teacher, and that's my own money. My parents aren't helping pay for school. All that money would be to waste. And then there's the fact that I am still keeping my fingers crossed and banking on Tom being able to support our family on his own so I can be a stay-at-home mom with our kids, and in that case, it won't matter if I have a degree in teaching or in zoology - I won't be using it.

I guess for now I will stay in my major and shake off these doubts that I have. Hopefully I am making the right decision.