Hoping this is the right thread for this.
My first post on ZooChat was in 2011. Since then, ZooChat has been a welcoming place for learning and creative output for me for over a decade. I've grown, matured, and learned a lot since 2011 in part because of ZooChat receiving "schoolings" on ambition-checking, species native range, and the German language.
Yesterday, I turned 25. Tomorrow is my first day as a seasonal keeper at the Bronx Zoo. More than 50 applications, eight interviews, and 22 rejections later, this job is the validation of a lifetime of passion, study, and work. Staying up until two A.M. finishing papers at the library in college, intense labor in intense Tampa summers, and hard conversations and harder learning curves in Cincinnati have been instrumental in crafting- I hope- not just an experienced and well-rounded aspiring keeper ready to take on the zoological world, but a pragmatic and mature person entering the adult world. Who knows where iluvwhales will go down the road.
Thank you ZooChat for being such a welcoming and wonderful place to learn and grow. I hope to continue contributing for a long time.
My first post on ZooChat was in 2011. Since then, ZooChat has been a welcoming place for learning and creative output for me for over a decade. I've grown, matured, and learned a lot since 2011 in part because of ZooChat receiving "schoolings" on ambition-checking, species native range, and the German language.
Yesterday, I turned 25. Tomorrow is my first day as a seasonal keeper at the Bronx Zoo. More than 50 applications, eight interviews, and 22 rejections later, this job is the validation of a lifetime of passion, study, and work. Staying up until two A.M. finishing papers at the library in college, intense labor in intense Tampa summers, and hard conversations and harder learning curves in Cincinnati have been instrumental in crafting- I hope- not just an experienced and well-rounded aspiring keeper ready to take on the zoological world, but a pragmatic and mature person entering the adult world. Who knows where iluvwhales will go down the road.
Thank you ZooChat for being such a welcoming and wonderful place to learn and grow. I hope to continue contributing for a long time.
I toured El Paso Zoo in the summer of 2010 and I was really impressed by the facility and since then they've added the Chihuahuan Desert area. It's a very remote zoo (8 hours from San Antonio, 5 hours from Tucson, 4 hours from Albuquerque), but El Paso is regarded as a safe city to live in and there's hot temperatures year round. It would be great if you were able to post the occasional update, as it's a place that not many zoo nerds visit.