What I Wanted To Be When I Grew Up

For the last 22 and a half years of my life, I've been employed full time as an architect at one of two architecture firms in upstate New York and the Washington, D.C. area. Mostly, I've loved almost every minute, day, week, month and year of it. Sure there have been some frustrating times, some days I've wanted to cry and some people who I have really wanted to strangle on the worst days; it's work after all. But it is a real privilege to be able to see something that you have designed on a sheet of paper or drawn as a two or three dimensional image in a computer program to be built piece by piece until you can eventually stand in what was once just something you imagined in your head.

I think I got really lucky when I picked this profession in a couple of ways. First, I've received a wonderful, well-rounded education which didn't end when I graduated from Syracuse University in 1993; it went on and on and even drove my travel all over this country and Europe for 15 years and more after I finished school. It's given me an identity and a purpose to a good portion of my life. I love that. I think this profession has made me a better person.

But secondly and more importantly for the purposes of this blog post, I got to do for real the last job I imagined having as a kid. I don't think there are many people who can necessarily say that. I decided I wanted to become an architect in study hall, of all places. And it stuck. I can still remember telling my friend Rich Borbely, who sat with me at our two person study hall table in the cafeteria of Gideon Welles Junior High School, that I had decided that's what I was going to do with my life. And I did. I'm sure most people don't end up doing the job they imagine themselves having in middle school. I got really lucky.

But just like most kids before I ended up what has gotten me a paycheck for most of my adult life, once upon a time I wanted to do something much different that has nothing to do with what I do now. I don't think this is unusual. I'm convinced depending on how you asked her that right now my niece would say she wanted to be a princess and would believe it's an achievable goal. Similarly, I'm sure kids (and by kids, I mean boys) that I grew up with in England wanted to be an astronaut or an actor or a super hero (one kid I knew claimed his middle names were "Steve" and "Austin" and he was actually related to the actual six million dollar man) or a policeman or a firefighter.

I didn't want any of those jobs. No astronaut, no actor, no super hero, no policeman, no firefighter, no soccer (or football in those days) player, no teacher, no writer, no aeronautical engineer (like my dad). None of it. What I really wanted to be when I was a kid was a zookeeper.

Stopped laughing yet? Good. I'm totally serious. From the time I can remember conceiving of having a job until I decided I wanted to be an architect, the only job I wanted was zookeeper. As a result, much of my childhood in England was spent visiting zoos with my parents and sister. Based on my me-as-a-kid's recollection, it seemed like we visited Twycross Zoo about 10 or 12 times a year, although I'm sure my memory's probably off here. The picture of the gibbon at the top of this post is from one of my many visits to that zoo; the gibbons were my favorites because if I made some ape noises, they would join in with me and eventually drown out my kid monkey noises. I think I did this every time I went but again I'm sure my memory's off here. If the howler monkeys nearby got in on one of those deals...look out.

Twycross was less than a ten mile drive from the town where we lived in Leicestershire but my parents were good enough to take me not just there but further afield also. My parents seemed to be all in on this life ambition, for which (among other things) I love them very much. I remember a couple of visits to Whipsnade Zoo north of London and at least one visit to the London Zoo in Regent's Park. I know the picture of the giraffes and zebras above (with the very English "subject, location and comments" stamp on the back) is from the London Zoo because the Decimus Burton designed Giraffe House is still there today. I'm glad I used to take pictures with my camera. Most of them have faded significantly over the years but they bring back some good memories.

Eventually I gave up on my dream to become a zookeeper, mostly because I figured out I really didn't like to get that close to most animals, and chose a more practical profession. The luster of zoos also wore off slowly over time. When we moved to the United States, we found no zoos close to our home in central Connecticut. By the time I figured out where the zoos were in this country and started making it a point to go more often, the pens that these animals that should be free and wild were confined to were mostly just depressing. I get the role that zoos play and have played in conservation efforts. I just don't want to go to most of them nowadays.

Despite my waning interest in the animal kingdom, I am still fascinated today by the largest mammals and the largest carnivores on Earth: elephants, giraffes, rhinos, hippos, bison, lions, leopards, tigers, bears and probably a few more I can't think of right now. Most of these creatures of course are native to Africa and still roam free in parts of that continent that has been mostly untouched by man. And so in honor of my former self and to quench a desire that I've had for most of my life, I've decided to take a trip later this month down to southern Africa to see these animals that I once loved so much for myself. I hope that it is as inspiring to me as the zoos I used to visit as a kid were. And I sincerely hope I get some better pictures that can supplement, but not replace, these ones shown here that I took when I dreamed of spending every day at a zoo. I'm sure I'll have some stories to tell.