6 Year Old Me- The Animal Advocate by Anastasia

6 Year Old Me- The Animal Advocate by Anastasia - June 2017 Scholarship Essay

Six year old me had a desire. She was intrigued, interested, and so very curious. Six year old me wanted to work with the earth's most beautiful creatures. She wanted to come so close to blood curdling monsters. She wanted to learn all she could about these wonders. She didn’t care about how the occupation might be exactly what she would want, she just had a burning desire to meet the beasts.
The beasts were animals. When I was six I was outside for as long as I could be. I was flipping over decaying logs to find earthworms with the help of my dad. Sometimes we’d find ground beetles, they’re the ones with the shiney black backs that resemble a freshly waxed black sports car, they’re definitely as fast as one. Other times we’d find earwigs. Those would be at the dampest places in my backyard. They’d be under the rocks that was next to the leaking hose. My mom dreaded them. We could find any bug you’d expect to find in Maine. Spiders, June Bugs, Millipedes- those were astounding. I called them turtle bugs because when you picked them up, they’d coil to protect themselves from prey. My favorite bug to find was the night crawler. They were immense! Some were so monstrous you could feel the bristles that you can only see under a microscope on normal earthworms. They felt like slimey sandpaper and they’d crawl to the crevices of my fingers. Around my six year old fingers and the amazement crawled right around my six year old head.
When mice would occasionally invade my house my dad would set traps for them to get trapped into a bucket instead of a mouse trap. We’d then let the mice go into a faraway field. Their eyes looked so big for their small little heads. I didn’t understand why anyone would want to kill them and I didn’t even understand why they were such a bother.
When I turned six I didn’t ask for any toys or games. I asked for a frog. After going to a toy store in North Conway, New Hampshire I met an African water frog that was 19 years old. He (or she, you can’t exactly tell with frogs) was chubby, olivey, ugly old thing. But it was love at first site and it was all my parents heard about for a solid month. By the time my birthday came around they ordered many, most of them showing up dead, until finally one came in the mail- alive. There was one small problem, he only had one eye. I loved him anyway and he lived ten years.
I loved animals and bugs more than any of my friends. When they wanted the latest barbies I wanted monarch caterpillars. When they would go to see the newest cartoon in the theater I’d rather be catching salamanders. This never stopped.
Here I am now in 2017 trying to figure out a stable career that involves animals and art who is my soulmate. I take after my parents who are both artists, my dad a jeweler, and my mom a painter. It’s an odd mix, it involves art and science to some extent so that is why I want to be a wildlife photographer. I want to capture the colors and textures of animals in their natural habitat. Their vividness attracts me like a magnet and capturing that to allow others to admire their natural beauty is what I want to do.