I'll be the first to admit that I did not have a great day today at work. There was a lot of little things that kept happening that by the end of the day just led to a lot of frustration on my part. I made a few mistakes here and there, and being the perfectionist that I am, I really let them get to me when I should have just shaken it off. However, after having some time away from the situation, I feel much better and am ready to get to work tomorrow and show everyone what I can do!
I was taught how to clean the deck this morning and how to do the rest of the daily morning chores. I struggled a little bit with cleaning the deck because I used too much water, which ended up leaking into the downstairs rooms. It wasn't a huge catastrophe or anything, but I was embarrassed when somebody came up to say something to me. The trainers all assured me that they had all made the same mistake before too and not to worry about it, but I still felt bad for causing problems, especially because I'm supposed to be there to make their lives easier, not more difficult!
For the rest of the morning I tried really hard to stay out of the way and do a good job. I found myself struggling a lot with finding things to do, because I still really don't know how to do that many tasks. Once all of the morning tasks were done, I cleaned up all of the toys and then often found myself struggling to find more work. I kept trying to clean buckets, but someone always got to them before me, and when I asked to help they said that they were fine. It was kind of stressful for me because I didn't want to feel like I was just standing around, but I also really didn't know what kinds of things I should be doing.
After lunch, luckily, one of the trainers asked if I would help her with enrichment. I know a decent amount about enrichment from being in the zoo, so I was grateful for the opportunity to help them with something I felt like I could actually do and do well. We ended up playing a bunch of different sounds for the boy dolphins at the windows and they loved it! They were dancing in the water and kept pushing their heads against the glass wanting to hear more. It was a lot of fun and we laughed a lot at their crazy reactions. I also blew bubbles over the girls water, but they weren't as into that as the boys were into the sounds. Then, she taught me how to fill in the paperwork and even let me fill it out for a few of the dolphins! I was really thankful that she let me help with that and was taking a hands on approach to teaching me, because it was something I felt like I really needed.
Later in the afternoon, I had a talk with a trainer about expectations. I think there was a big miscommunication somewhere along the line and somehow the things that I was expected to do got lost in translation. Part of it was my fault, I was always just kind of waiting to have someone tell me what to do instead of taking the initiative to look for something to do. I hadn't been down to the kitchen in a while, so she sent me down there to finish some cleaning. I left the place extra clean and even brought up a few things I anticipated that they would need so that I could prove to them and myself that I had what it took.
Finally, at the end of the day, I talked with Kimmy (my mentor) about expectations and about a project I have to do during my internship. I asked exactly what was expected of me, which cleared a lot up and made me feel better about the whole workday. We also discussed potential project ideas and what the final product should look like. Basically, I have to do behavioral observations on the dolphins and then report my findings to the trainers at the end of the internship. I'm looking forward to getting started on that and I've been brainstorming a few good project ideas!
I was completely overwhelmed by the end of the day, but now I'm feeling a lot better. I remember feeling similarly when I was first starting at the zoo, but after pushing through the initial overwhelming feelings and learning how to take initiative, I ended up loving the zoo and my job there. I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be a much better day, if only for the fact that I understand so much more now and I am going in with a great attitude about the work I have to get done. I'll be posting tomorrow to let you know how it goes, so wish me luck!