#crbe

Growing up I always had a passion for animals. Any kind of animal I could meet, I was more than happy to interact with and learn about. Everyone would always ask me if I wanted to be a vet, and I always said 'maybe. I don't know yet'. It seemed like the only way I could work with animals, but I assumed being a vet meant you could only work with dogs and cats. As I got older, I realized it didn't limit you to only dogs and cats, but if you were to ask me now if I want to be a vet, I would say 'no'. At age sixteen, I started working at a vet clinic, somewhat pursuing my dream of working with animals somehow, but it didn't really feel like what I want to do for the rest of my life. Go back a few years to age thirteen. I got my first snake January of that year. My mom hated her, told me she had to stay in my room and she never wanted to see her- it took me months to convince her to let me have one. Then the next month, I got three more, and my mom's interest was piqued. I think she wanted to know what I found so interesting about them. By March of that year, I had four snakes and I loved telling everyone about them. Then I started doing small presentations with them to young children at the local Humane Society. Children were either ecstatic or terrified. They either loved reptiles, and were curious to learn about them, or they had heard that all reptiles had big teeth and could kill you. One year later, and I had a few more snakes and a couple lizards, and teaching my co-workers as well as the children was where I felt I belonged. It filled that dream spot. Which absolutely crushed me, because I have a ridiculously high fear of speaking in front of groups, even small ones. Skip now to being almost eighteen years old, having had reptiles for almost four years, many years of 'I don't know what I want to be/do when I grow up' and I've finally got an answer. I want to educate people. I've made a difference in many people's lives already in just my home town, teaching them about my pets, and I've realized that this is what I want to do. I want to learn about the animals so that I can educate the people. I want to teach people that just because it has the potential to, doesn't mean it will harm you. I want to show people all the silly quirks about animals that they can't see because they're blinded by fear. But I'm not limiting myself to reptiles, I want to learn about as many animals as I can, reptiles just seemed like the place to start, being a very misunderstood category of animals.

This is a photo of a young golden albino axolotl from the Canadian Reptile Breeders Expo (CRBE) at the Axolotl Canada booth. 

I'm absolutely fascinated by these mysterious little amphibians and hope to start up a tank very soon :)