An interview with myself.....part 1.

John Question: What’s the best thing you did today?

John Answer: I took the dogs for a predawn walk this morning up to the hill at the end of the road and watched the sunrise.  Stunning way to start the day.

John Question: What are your plans for the rest of this weekend?

John Answer: I have a list of random things I want to do, but probably won’t get to all of them.  I need to update my blog, make sure I do some yoga and some stretches and just generally relax.  I also need to start looking at accommodation in Tahiti for our trip there in February.  Generally, I want to relax and not think about work or anything negative that makes my soul feel heavy.

John Question: What is it about your work that makes your soul feel heavy?  I would imagine working with animals to be very soothing and joyful?

John Answer: And to a large degree it is, which makes the bad things about the job seem even worse (he chuckles).  Keeping animals in a zoo environment poses many challenges for those who work with them.  There is a constant need of enrichment, care, observation and training, not to mention the daily cleaning and feeding.  All of this can be different from one day to the next, so there lays the challenge of keeping on top of it all so in the end you are giving the animals a great life while keeping yourself sane.

John Question:  What would you be doing if you weren’t a zoo keeper?

John Answer: I would imagine I would still be tour guiding, or I may have finally got around to becoming a teacher.

John Question:  What do you think you will be doing in 5 years?

John Answer:  I seriously consider my options for the future because zoo keeping is a very physically demanding job and I have never seen it as the job I will be doing until retirement.  I hope that my next career change will see me back in the tourism industry again, either as a tour guide or a travel agent.  I enjoyed the customer focus of tourism as well as the travel.  I may end up doing a travel agent course sometime soon.

John Question: What do you think you will be doing in 10 years?

John Answer:  Again, tourism would be something to keep me happy for some years, but again I think I would like a change after a while.  Counselling is something I can see myself doing later in life.  The personal contact with people and the issues that they face attracts me to the role.  I have often been the one people come to for help and feel it to be some sort of calling.  Sounds corny but that’s how I feel.

The remainder of the interview will be published soon.