It’s actually my homework. It’s a presentation I have to give on Monday, about a significant moment in my life. Well I’ve written it, and I’m not looking for any constructive critisism or anything, just comments or any personal insight you might have.
I got a good reaction out of my mom, meaning she started to cry (she’s a softie like me). Most other students who presented did a happy moment and stuff, but since I hate public speaking, I chose to do something very dramatic and negative, 1) so I have no reason to smile 2) so my words can speak emotion for me 3) it’s easier to make an audience hang onto your words if you can get some sympathy and sadness.
“I am in Co-op for both semesters this year, and for my placement I have chosen to give my help and time at the local animal shelter, the S.P.C.A. I have helped out here before, but not so enthusiastically as I am now. Because of my Co-op connection, I am allowed to be more actively involved in helping out. I started a couple months ago, and began to go about one day a week to equally learn the skills I need to know for Co-op and what it takes to maintain the health and mentality of abused, abandoned and lost animals.
My significant moment is every moment I have with these creatures; and everyday I spend with them. It does not sound as impacting as it should, nor will it seem important to anyone who has not experienced what I do, which is a sense of productivity that I feel when I am in the presence of helpless domestic animals who usually no longer have the means to care for themselves and rely on people like me, to do it for them.
My significant moments are not comforting to me. I am exposed to weak and scared animals, some of whom will live out their short lives, reacting to their last home, which is a walled-in cage, in viciousness and confusion. These animals cannot differentiate those who have come to help them, with those who have in the past, hurt them, and yes, I have personally discovered that they will bite the hand that feeds them. Other animals, which are mostly cats and dogs, will also not leave their kennels, and will await their end in sickness and howls of captivity.
But yes, there are many who live to see the love of a new home. Being in my position I tend to associate the positive aspects in working with homeless animals, with the negative aspects. The feeling I get is the same feeling I get every time I am there; I feel like I’m doing something good, but it’s difficult to feel that way when you are looking in the eyes of dozens of childlike creatures, who seem to silently ask you “What is my fate?”
I know it sounds dramatic and a bit silly. I guess you have to walk into that shelter with a lot of sensitivity and pity, as I do. I can’t take watching people look at these animals, contently selecting which one they will take home, and leaving all the rest behind.
I don’t think I’ll ever have moments like those that don’t involve animals. But with this sadness comes the position to watch those animals that DO get to go to a good home. It’s a bittersweet sadness that I can’t understand. All the aspects surrounding the caring and adoption for an animal is a frame of mind that I have chosen to speak about right now.
You could say that this presentation is a shameless plug in asking for your understanding and interest for homeless animals, and yes, it is. I don’t think many people realize what goes on in an animal shelter or any kind of shelter. I know I do, and I know every time, I have to deal with these nameless animals, I am leaving myself vulnerable for heart break for the next time I see them, and the next.
It may sound odd that my interests and love lay in the behaviour of cats and dogs, homeless ones, but that’s who I am, and if I expect to care for them, and make them better enough to be sent off to a good home, I must deal with the hurt of watching them waste their days away behind kennels that will never be empty.
I will never forget my placement in Co-op. I will never forget my time with the S.P.C.A and the work and emotion I put into it. I did not want to pursue animal care in college for obvious reasons; that I may not be able to deal and accept all of the awful abuse and neglect that animals may receive. I am a weak hearted person and I feel that if I were to base my life around the care of animals, I would not be able to move past the eventual death and violence that is usually associated with any kind of animal. Working with the S.P.C.A however, has allowed me to reconsider that. I have took it upon myself to make it a personal mission, to help any abandoned (or not) creature that I can, if the sadness does not kill me in the process.
I apologize if my significant moment wasn’t specific enough, but I can’t explain it better than what I have. I will continue to work there as much as I can, with a love and passion that I can’t convey with any sort of vocabulary, but also with a depression and a harsh sense of reality in knowing that I am only one person, and I cannot help or save every animal. In saying this, I hope in the future some of you will consider adopting from the S.P.C.A or any animal shelter in an effort to lower the amount of traffic, that we are usually overwhelmed with, one life at a time.”
Well, thoughts please. I figured this belonged here, rather than the HW board or the Main board. Anything at all is fine. Did i get my point across? And no making fun of me cuz I’m such a baby.