my story starts in Mexico where I grew
up as a teenager I was a part of an
environmental science club in the
biggest zoo of Central and South America
I’m the one in the yellow shirt the one
who forgot the Hat I got to take a role
on several projects undertaking by
veterinarians zookeepers and other
amazing staff another over the course of
eight years I got to be part of more
things that I probably should have one
of the most interesting things I got to
do at the zoo was recording and
observing animals behavior in their
enclosures one of the things we were
looking for where it signs of stereotype
ease no I didn’t mr. announced that a
stereotype II it’s actually different
than a stereotype it is a repetitive
picture a tiger in the zoo walking back
and forth in its enclosure pacing in the
same path again and again in humans you
can picture someone walking or rocking
back and forth continuously when we
would see the beginnings of a
stereotyping it was our job to eliminate
it to better accommodate an animal’s
needs by enriching their natural their
habitat to the best of our ability now
each design was different we took into
account the animals personality age and
interests we always started by
recreating
that that natural habitat to the best of
our ability we would include a variety
of land elements that stimulate all of
their senses promoting physical activity
and a sense of purpose pushing those
brains out of those repetitive behaviors
we would normally have the best outcomes
or we included a variety of activities
fast-forward a few years and I found
myself in a camp of the YMCA teaching
kids about nature riding horses and
other activities that stimulated their
senses also capture their attention
that’s where I met my future husband and
after four years of long-distance dating
and some very expensive phone and travel
bills we got married and I moved to the
US I think we can all agree that moving
it’s scary but a long-distance move to a
country that speaks a whole other
language than you it’s especially scary
you’re removed from your family your
friends and the places they give you a
comfort at first the Elco air
conditioning it’s too cold and also
you’re getting sick or lost all the time
the worst thing it’s people don’t
understand you and you don’t understand
them fast forward another few years and
I found myself in a class of this Coast
culture shock and reading the definition
said of some light bulbs first that
culture shock was a real thing and
second that I had gone through it a few
times
I believe that it’s a little different
well really a lot different than what
you read in a book though to me it’s
like that first day of high school when
it feels like everyone knows what’s
going on but you living in the deep
south amplify that feeling the constants
they’re of unfamiliar faces made me
aware of a new sensation like a sense of
otherness when I was growing up I knew
the culture the customs history and I
spoke the language where I moved I had
none of that not to put too fine a point
on it but to put too fine a point on it
it wears a new to constantly be reduced
to a taco when you say you were born in
Mexico and as you can imagine the
political discourse around immigration
in general but Mexico specifically
didn’t help either it polarized me to
humanize me it made me feel less like
Elizabeth and more like a thing a thing
that had no voice and no value and
suddenly I remember all of those years
working in a zoo with animals in
captivity and I recognized that I felt
captive captive in my own environment
captive of other people’s ideas of what
I should be like if my accent was too
strong or too foreign or to articulate
recognized that I had spent too much
time molding myself to those ideas of
what I should be blending into the
background and forgetting about my own
that’s when it hit me how did I get from
knowing the importance of and reaching
animals environments to where I was too
busy to enrich my own so I stopped I
stopped participating in empty routines
I stopped internalizing what made me sad
and I stopped being a passenger in my
own life I engaged in meaningful
conversations by opening up about the
things that I thought and felt and
shared my own experiences even if people
couldn’t relate to them I questioned
everything and anything that I was doing
and if it didn’t bring me absolute joy I
stopped doing it if there’s anything
I’ve learned from working with animals
in captivity is that everything counts
when you’re trying to help a brain move
forward so I started to pursue the
things I love I pay attention to what
excited me regardless of how
inconvenient it seemed at a time to
balance it with my life as a mom wife
and owner of two very demanding puppies
I started school and study landscape
design an old passion of mine but also a
tool that helped me modify my
I took some time to be around nature
since it suits me and by doing so I
learned that I have a very compulsive
love for plants okay I see compulsive my
husband says expensive but either way
it’s brought me joy and a whole new
level I found time to volunteer in
Constance that I cared about I got to
know people in my own community trying
to make it a better place this allowed
me to share my own knowledge and gain
some in return and I’m there to explore
things that I never thought I could do
like art and music and okay so far music
has being a terrible fail but I consider
art a success because sometimes my kids
introduced me as an artist and every
time I hear them say my mom it’s an
artist I’m reminded of the ripple effect
the pursuing my own interests has had on
those around me in essence I had to push
myself out of those repetitive patterns
in order to move forward the more I
pushed myself out of my comfort zone the
more that I grew and the better I got on
what I was doing and the more I embrace
my new friends is the more I could
contribute to my own environment and by
doing so I found my voice a voice that
so what I’ve learned is this making one
small change can have a big impact in
your life and the environment around you
when I was first I committing to America
there’s the small things the kind
gestures from random strangers that made
everything okay and that helped me find
a small piece of common ground in my new
home we all have that power you have
that power the power to reach your life
and the lives around you if we do that
individually we can make small
contributions but collectively we can change the world
up as a teenager I was a part of an
environmental science club in the
biggest zoo of Central and South America
I’m the one in the yellow shirt the one
who forgot the Hat I got to take a role
on several projects undertaking by
veterinarians zookeepers and other
amazing staff another over the course of
eight years I got to be part of more
things that I probably should have one
of the most interesting things I got to
do at the zoo was recording and
observing animals behavior in their
enclosures one of the things we were
looking for where it signs of stereotype
ease no I didn’t mr. announced that a
stereotype II it’s actually different
than a stereotype it is a repetitive
picture a tiger in the zoo walking back
and forth in its enclosure pacing in the
same path again and again in humans you
can picture someone walking or rocking
back and forth continuously when we
would see the beginnings of a
stereotyping it was our job to eliminate
it to better accommodate an animal’s
needs by enriching their natural their
habitat to the best of our ability now
each design was different we took into
account the animals personality age and
interests we always started by
recreating
that that natural habitat to the best of
our ability we would include a variety
of land elements that stimulate all of
their senses promoting physical activity
and a sense of purpose pushing those
brains out of those repetitive behaviors
we would normally have the best outcomes
or we included a variety of activities
fast-forward a few years and I found
myself in a camp of the YMCA teaching
kids about nature riding horses and
other activities that stimulated their
senses also capture their attention
that’s where I met my future husband and
after four years of long-distance dating
and some very expensive phone and travel
bills we got married and I moved to the
US I think we can all agree that moving
it’s scary but a long-distance move to a
country that speaks a whole other
language than you it’s especially scary
you’re removed from your family your
friends and the places they give you a
comfort at first the Elco air
conditioning it’s too cold and also
you’re getting sick or lost all the time
the worst thing it’s people don’t
understand you and you don’t understand
them fast forward another few years and
I found myself in a class of this Coast
culture shock and reading the definition
said of some light bulbs first that
culture shock was a real thing and
second that I had gone through it a few
times
I believe that it’s a little different
well really a lot different than what
you read in a book though to me it’s
like that first day of high school when
it feels like everyone knows what’s
going on but you living in the deep
south amplify that feeling the constants
they’re of unfamiliar faces made me
aware of a new sensation like a sense of
otherness when I was growing up I knew
the culture the customs history and I
spoke the language where I moved I had
none of that not to put too fine a point
on it but to put too fine a point on it
it wears a new to constantly be reduced
to a taco when you say you were born in
Mexico and as you can imagine the
political discourse around immigration
in general but Mexico specifically
didn’t help either it polarized me to
humanize me it made me feel less like
Elizabeth and more like a thing a thing
that had no voice and no value and
suddenly I remember all of those years
working in a zoo with animals in
captivity and I recognized that I felt
captive captive in my own environment
captive of other people’s ideas of what
I should be like if my accent was too
strong or too foreign or to articulate
recognized that I had spent too much
time molding myself to those ideas of
what I should be blending into the
background and forgetting about my own
that’s when it hit me how did I get from
knowing the importance of and reaching
animals environments to where I was too
busy to enrich my own so I stopped I
stopped participating in empty routines
I stopped internalizing what made me sad
and I stopped being a passenger in my
own life I engaged in meaningful
conversations by opening up about the
things that I thought and felt and
shared my own experiences even if people
couldn’t relate to them I questioned
everything and anything that I was doing
and if it didn’t bring me absolute joy I
stopped doing it if there’s anything
I’ve learned from working with animals
in captivity is that everything counts
when you’re trying to help a brain move
forward so I started to pursue the
things I love I pay attention to what
excited me regardless of how
inconvenient it seemed at a time to
balance it with my life as a mom wife
and owner of two very demanding puppies
I started school and study landscape
design an old passion of mine but also a
tool that helped me modify my
I took some time to be around nature
since it suits me and by doing so I
learned that I have a very compulsive
love for plants okay I see compulsive my
husband says expensive but either way
it’s brought me joy and a whole new
level I found time to volunteer in
Constance that I cared about I got to
know people in my own community trying
to make it a better place this allowed
me to share my own knowledge and gain
some in return and I’m there to explore
things that I never thought I could do
like art and music and okay so far music
has being a terrible fail but I consider
art a success because sometimes my kids
introduced me as an artist and every
time I hear them say my mom it’s an
artist I’m reminded of the ripple effect
the pursuing my own interests has had on
those around me in essence I had to push
myself out of those repetitive patterns
in order to move forward the more I
pushed myself out of my comfort zone the
more that I grew and the better I got on
what I was doing and the more I embrace
my new friends is the more I could
contribute to my own environment and by
doing so I found my voice a voice that
so what I’ve learned is this making one
small change can have a big impact in
your life and the environment around you
when I was first I committing to America
there’s the small things the kind
gestures from random strangers that made
everything okay and that helped me find
a small piece of common ground in my new
home we all have that power you have
that power the power to reach your life
and the lives around you if we do that
individually we can make small
contributions but collectively we can change the world
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