I am not going to lie. Much like everyone else, I do get stressed from time to time. No matter how much I eat right and exercise and not let small things bother me, stress always seems to enter my life at one point or another.
So on top of applying to graduate schools, job hunting, and living life, I decided to volunteer the other day. This past Wednesday from 8am - 1pm I volunteered at the Staten Island Zoo. Yes, you read that right....the zoo.
I decided voluntarily that I would scoop poop, carry hundreds of pounds of feed, and surround myself with animals that certainly haven’t bathed in months. Don’t worry, I am not crazy and I knew what I was getting myself into.......or so I thought.
The day started off fairly straight forward. I had to clean up after the rabbits, goats, sheep, and even horses. I have never seen so much poop.
Then I got a surprise!
After all of the cleaning and feeding I was informed there was a petting zoo and one of my duties would be participate in interacting with the children, adults, and animals. After a short break, we heard over the radio that a pre-school class had just showed up and everyone wanted to go inside the petting zoo.
After the introduction, a zookeeper, myself, 3 adults, and 20 children aged 3-5 years old, headed into the petting zoo. I could have guessed that if you are 3-5 years old, an animal like a goat must be a little intimidating considering its size, not to mention the alpaca that are bigger than I am.
Immediately upon entering, the kids began to look at the adults to figure out what to do. By this point in the morning, I was comfortable with the animals so I walked right over to a goat and let it sniff my hands and then proceeded to give it a good scratch and massage. Around 5 of the kids immediately ran over next to me and put their little hands on the goat trying to figure out what I was doing. I talked to them and assured them it wasn’t going to hurt them and after about a minute or so, I slowly lifted my hands. I figured I would watch them pet the goat but immediately, 5 little pairs of hands shot back and I had 5 pairs of eye looking right at me.
So we slowly proceeded to another goat...and then another and another until the kids were more comfortable with the animals and I could talk with the adults.
After the teachers rounded up the children and they scurried off to another part of the zoo, it finally hit me.
In those few minutes, with 5 little pairs of hands petting Alice Cooper the goat right next to mine, I didn’t worry about a thing. Stress, worry, anything bothering me......all of it was gone. They would ask me a question about the horns or why her fur was so warm then we would get back to giving Alice Cooper a good scratch.
But no matter what was bothering me that day, helping little kids and teaching them to trust in animals and each other mattered more than anything else I did at the zoo that day.
So this weekend and in the next week or so, if you find stress creeping into your life, find the time to help someone. Teach someone, give something away for free, or even just open a door for a stranger.
Just make sure you are helping someone else and you will realize no matter how the day turns out, you will discover something that actually matters in your life. Have a great weekend!
