Like most kids, growing up I participated in sports as a way to learn teamwork, meet new friends and have fun. While I enjoyed my days of toddler soccer, little league softball, and high school volleyball, I found I learned many more valuable lessons through my work with animals.
When I was eight, I started riding horses. Every Friday after school, I would run home and change as fast as I could, to go to the barn. It was my favorite place to be. The barn is where I was first exposed to what it meant to have a strong work ethic. If you wanted to ride that day, you had to first clean horse stalls, groom horses, feed horses and give them water. Sometimes more than half my time at the barn would be spent doing chores, but that never bothered me. I loved every second I was there. I learned very quickly that horses, like all animals, are an immense responsibility. While riding was fun, you had to take care of them first. I rode horses at that barn for four years and would never trade a day there for anything.
After I could no longer ride due to an injury, I had a hole in my heart and was missing working with animals. So I joined my local 4-H club where I cared for and showed cows at local fairs. Now, if I thought caring for horses was tough, I was surely mistaken. We took care of and trained the cows year round just for two weeks of showing in the summertime. And while showing was always a blast, my favorite times were spent working at the barn.
I would go any day I could after school and even wake up at 5:30 a.m. on the weekends and summers for the morning milking. The barn instantly became my favorite place to be, but it was a lot of hard work for what may seem like little reward to some. There was constantly work to be done from spreading hay, milking cows and cleaning pens to cleaning out their stalls and bottle-feeding the calves. I always felt a sense of pride and accomplishment when I left the barn for the day, knowing that I had been productive.
After spending three years in 4-H, I got a job at my local dog kennel when I was 14-years-old. This was a new concept to me because I got paid for doing what I loved to do. I worked there during my summers and school vacations walking dogs, conducting playgroups with dogs, feeding them, cleaning runs, and any other miscellaneous jobs that needed to get done. When most people hear that I work at a dog kennel they instantly say, “Awww you get to play with puppies all day long!” This always used to strike me as odd I would think, “Don’t they know how much work we have to do before we can play with them?” And then one day I realized, they don’t. Most people believe that working with animals is all fun and games, and while it was the most fun and rewarding part of my childhood, I know just how much work it actually takes to get to the fun part.
I am so grateful for the opportunities I have had to work with animals because it has taught me to have a strong work ethic and set of values that hard work pays off. But the animals taught me the most. They taught me how to have compassion for others. They taught me to be patient and understanding. Without them, I wouldn’t be who I am today. So if you’re considering volunteering with animals or a job in an animal related field, go for it. You won’t be disappointed.
