It was a strange thought to have while struggling with impenetrable chaparral on a site visit. What was supposed to be a simple task to photograph some future geotesting sites turned into a four hour odyssey, literally bushwhacking to the sites wondering when a rattlesnake would launch out of a bush and go for my jugular. Maybe it was the sun but all I could think of while I inhaled about a tonne of pollen was that I never thought I would end up here. 

Mind you it’s not a bad thing, I enjoy my job and site visits are the best part of it. I just never thought I would be a development consultant when I was growing up (this might be a bit obvious though as I cant imagine a kid who would know what a development consultant is, much less want to become one). I knew from the tender age of 10 what I wanted to be…well before I was 10 my ambition was to be a tracker at Yala. But after 10 I wanted to be Gerald Durrel, a brown version of him at least. A life dedicated to obscure species and the saving of them from extinction. I had it all planned out. A breeding center up in the hills, tanks in a climate controlled building, enclosures for the larger animals. Yes I was an ineffably weird kid.

And then I grew up, well actually I went to college and learnt what conservation really was about. That it as about people, livelihoods, habitat protection, poverty alleviation and a plethora of other related and diverse factors. I also discovered (well before college) that I enjoyed drinking, clubs, girls and those other material frivolities that interfere with being a hermit up in the mountains obsessing about frogs. There was also the rather frightening discovery that the biologists, ecologists and conservation biologists I met were rather boring people. 

In fact even through grad school I came to the realization that I couldn’t, didn’t want to be someone who did one thing in life. I found that I was deadly scared of being pigeonholed, of being known as an environmental scientist, an engineer, anything that involved doing one thing. It doesn’t really matter if the projects are different every day but the concept of a fixed career path scares the beejesus out of me. That probably explains why at various times of my life I have been an office manager, a biologist, a mortgage salesperson, an environmental scientist, a failed arrack importer, a fundraiser for a non-profit and a land use planner. It’s why I want to do a PhD in International Development; it’s why I’m obsessed with photography, why I want to start my own company.

It’s because at the end of the day, when I grow up (and some might say that’s going to be awhile) I want to be a land use consulting, social entrepreneur, regular entrepreneur, development consulting, writer, photographer. That’s not asking for much is it?