114
My face paled; you can guess who the lowest score belonged to.
Humiliated, I told my mother what had happened that day and
she was furious. Her meeting with and berating my teacher,
however, did nothing to boost my confidence; being repeatedly
told that my writing was never up to standard crushed me; I
felt useless. Writing and even reading books became too
vanilla for me. My right-brained mentality abandoned me, and
so did my pride.
My dream of becoming a zoologist died when I finished my
sophomore year at my high school; reality started to hit me.
First, I received a “D” in biology, meaning that I surely
wouldn’t have a talent in the subject if I were to major in it.
Second, my mom had looked into and decided the college that I
was going to attend: Lake Washington Institute of Technology,
which does not support a biology or zoology major, as it is a
technical college. Finally, I spoke with employees of zoos and
aquariums, it was clear that getting a job was challenging,
taking into account the credentials, but also the economy,
which forces local zoos to operate with a shortage of staff. After
gleaning this potpourri of information, my concluding
diagnosis was that being a zookeeper was an unrealistic and
nearly unobtainable life goal.