Thinking back
At one time in my life, when I was younger, I wanted to be a vet. Now that I think about it I don’t think I actually want to work with animals but rather just hold them and play with them. I think the reality of working with animals includes picking up poop and cleaning cages. It’s easy to see from a distance what the vets do and just assume that working with animals is just fun and games. I did shadow a vet once at the local animal hospital and it was interesting for a while but I quickly lost interest. I wonder if my mind was in the right place at the time. During the placement the only thing on my mind was that I wanted to be a human doctor and that I was just shadowing for the fun of it. Giving shots and taking blood from animals was also a completely different thing that petting, cuddling, and holding an animal. Another job working with animals would be research. Although I have an interest in herpetology there are not many available positions to target my exact interest. I would want to work specifically with snakes and do research. But then again I think what I really want to do is just play with/hold snakes.
I don’t actually want to do research on snakes. In my opinion research is actually pretty boring. See, exploring is fun, but research is so tedious and there is so much busy work to be done it minimizes the actual exploration and makes the whole process boring. Majority of research these days you really wonder, “Who cares?” There are many labs that directly tie their research to real world circumstances, such as the Multiple Sclerosis lab I am in. But research in herpetology really can allow you to bring up the same question, “Who cares?” Oftentimes the research done in herpetology is on such a specific topic or question that it seems almost unnecessary. So I really think all this animal and herpetology stuff I’m interested in will remain just a hobby. I’ll probably end up being the doctor with a few snakes and a dog at home…
