Best part of working at a zoo is that I get to meet so many super-passionate kids and teens AND young people automatically think I'm the coolest person ever.
Yesterday I met a gaggle of kids who absolutely PEPPERED me with questions for like, 20 minutes. They were very curious, and super polite.
One of them mentioned having a bearded dragon, and I got kind of nervous because a lot of people don't take good care of their pets (especially herps) but he started talking about monitoring the temperature and humidity and having a 120-gallon tank, and it sounded like he'd just done so much research and put so much effort into this lizard and it made me very happy.
After talking to these kids about reptiles and amphibians for 20-ish minutes, and them helping me find a pair of birds (I was too tall), they all thanked me and offered me fist bumps, which I eagerly accepted. Their parents tried to apologize for taking up so much of my time, and I told them "Excited, polite kids are my favorite people in the world to talk to. Don't apologize. Your kids are awesome."
And then later, I was on my way out of the kangaroo yard, and I saw the group again and they were on their way in, and the kids all yelled "HI [name]!" and I waved and they all yelled "BYE, [name]!" And on my way out I had to walk above where they were so I waved at them again and got another small chorus of "HI [name]! BYE [name]!".
It was a very "There's good in this world, Mr. Frodo" moment for me, and I didn't stop smiling for at least half an hour.
Later the same day I talked to one of the older teen volunteers for a good 20-30 minutes. She reminded me a lot of me when I was in high school, albeit a little less lonely -- but only because of the zoo and the teen volunteer program.
And then today I was walking around the zoo near the end of the day, and I almost collided with a small gaggle of teenage volunteers. I asked where they were going, and they told me where and asked if I wanted to tag along. I said that unfortunately I couldn't, because I had to go to the insect building. They said "well, what if WE join YOU?" and of course my response was "HELL YEAH, the more the merrier!"
Which is how I ended up being followed around by a gaggle of 5-10 teenagers for the last half hour of my day. They were all lovely, so I told them to come pester me any time they see me and that I'm down to chat if any of them have questions about college / career stuff. I genuinely hope they take me up on it. (I walked about 15ft away and they immediately started filling their friends in on who I am and how I'm cool and nice, which was really funny because I could still hear them.)
I don't want kids, and I don't want to work exclusively with kids full-time or even live with kids in my space, but I will take the utmost GLEE in talking to excited, curious, and polite kids/teens. Genuinely my favorite people to interact with.
(A special shoutout to the young girl from a few months ago who talked to me about giraffes for 15-20 minutes. At one point I realized I didn't see her mom and looked around, only to see that mom had decided to take advantage of her daughter's distraction to sit down in the shade about 10-15ft away from us. She recognized the "oh shit, where's your parents" look in my eyes and waved and gave me a "Yep, that's my kid, you're good!" gesture and I went back to talking to her daughter.)
