In college, I wanted to have a life outside of school, but that was hard for me. I decided one way to do that was to volunteer at a bird rehabilitation center. That way, I had to get out and do something other than school because I made a promise to go every week.

I had only had a pet bird for a little bit but they passed away shortly after getting them because my dog killed them. I had never volunteered around animals before but loved them, so it seemed like a great idea. I decided to volunteer on Saturdays so I could remain as consistent as possible.

They had a thorough process, you had to apply, then go to the lecture, then decide what team to be a part of. I didn’t care for dealing with people- I spend over twelve hours a day with people, from classmates to my roommates. I didn’t want to go through a tougher process to be able to present the birds in front of people either. I decided I’d rather clean the cages and feed them and have someone else tell me what to do.

On my first day, I wanted to make a good impression. Unfortunately, the person that was supposed to be showing me the ropes wasn’t there, so this woman who told no jokes took me outside.

We went to the aviary and she talked about how every animal here was wild and that they weren’t pets. Being young, even in college, I took her seriously, like either the animal or I could die. Which is the case a lot, but keep reading; I have a point to make.

If you don’t know, because I sure didn’t, the aviary here was where we would small birds that would be released such as quail, pigeons, ducks, etc. The woman left me after this speech and my anxiety was at an all-time high. I went into one of the cages and the worst thing ( I thought at the time) could happen: a pigeon landed on my head. From the talk I was just given, you would have expected that an eagle about to eat my head was there instead!

So when my team lead came, he was super nice and didn’t laugh at me too hard for being scared of a pigeon on my head. He walked me through the rest for like a week.

I volunteered there for two years. It was amazing. Behind the scenes was a lot of hard work, scrubbing down cages, cutting up dead quail and rats to feed the birds but the longer I was there the more backbone I had. I soon loved when pigeons would land on me and just chill.

Throughout my time there I picked up birds that sadly had passed, or that were injured and the next week there weren’t there. It taught me that the world has an ecosystem and you can’t determine it if you tried. We all die and give back to the world. Death became more normal and life more amazing and I cherished it so much because of that.

And just so you know, I now wave to pigeons and grackles when I see them and even talk to them.