We're Halfway There

These awesome photos were taken by my even more awesome friend, Nate. Did I mention he's awesome? 

            Work this morning with Cristina, Maggie, and Emily wasn’t very hard. The shift seemed to kind of drag a little toward the end of it since we weren’t very busy, but other than that it was fine. It definitely felt nice when three o’clock came around, though. I was originally scheduled to have all morning shifts this week, but Maggie asked me if I’d switch shifts with her tomorrow. There’s another softball game tomorrow evening, and Maggie’s on the team, so I said I’d switch with her so she could have the evening off to go play. Now I’m working at three tomorrow with Nate, James and Jen, which will be nice. The morning shift is usually easier, but it’ll still be nice to sleep a little later tomorrow. It feels like I haven’t been able to do that in a while.

So this morning at work I figured out that my crazy adventure in this park is now exactly halfway over. This has already been the best summer of my life, and there are times when I wish I could slow down time so that I could stay longer. I went into this adventure knowing that it was temporary, which was part of the reason why I chose to do it. I wanted to get out on my own for a while, but the thought of permanently leaving San Antonio was out of the question. As I was getting ready to leave, I had to keep reminding myself that it was temporary, and I’d be back home in October.

            I’m not really sure how to feel about the fact that my time here in this park is half over. Having dinner with Nate in the EDR just now, I thought about the fact that we’ve all become a sort of family here. The thought of having to say goodbye to Nate, Cristina, Tanner, Jesse, and everyone else really sucks. The hikes I’ve taken, raft trips I’ve been on, wildlife I’ve seen, and kayaking and cliff jumping I’ve done has all been amazing, but my favorite thing I’ve done here so far is make these great friends.

            At the same time, I have both my real family and my “zoo family” back home in SA that it seems like an eternity since I’ve seen. When I hear about the new babies at the zoo or see pictures of zoo camp events, a piece of me can’t help but think that I should be there. I know that most of me would rather be here, but I still miss that awesome zoo, and the people and animals in it. Because of that, I think that when October rolls around, I’ll be ready to return to the city I always have and always will call home. For now, let’s see if I can make the second half of this adventure even better than the first.