Blog: If you follow your dreams and stay true to yourself, good things will happen.

This International Men's Day, Jamie Norris from Edinburgh Zoo writes about staying true to his beliefs, and the unexpected fulfilments of a career in zoos:

I have been very fortunate to have had a rewarding career here at Edinburgh Zoo for over sixteen years. I spent the first fourteen years of my career as a Zookeeper, which was always a dream job of mine from a very young age.

When I was younger, I never had any of the same interests my male friends had. I never shared any of the common hobbies in the playground. Instead of football I was more interested in seeing nature, instead of action movies I was way more interested in the latest nature documentary. What I did care about was nature and wildlife and being kind, traits which as a teenager were almost viewed as “unfashionable” or “not cool”. I never really felt like I fitted into any one mould and as such I was always very quiet and never really had much of a presence anywhere I went.

As a result of this I was never particularly popular, I didn't have many friends until I went to university.

When I met like-minded people, I finally felt like I fit in. I started to have friends, and I started to get invited to events and have a social life. As a result I grew in confidence.

University soon led me into the world of Edinburgh Zoo, where I started as a weekend keeper for two years. I never thought I would be lucky enough to get the chance to work at a zoo. Here I was, still at university, and bagged my dream job.

Over fourteen years I got to work with some amazing animals. I predominantly worked as a hoofstock keeper, but I also worked with many other species including chimps and penguins. It was a demanding job but it was all I ever wanted. Caring is in my nature and now here I was caring for animals from all over the globe and doing my bit to help with conservation.

After many years of zookeeping I eventually reached the point where I had progressed as far as that career path would take me. I fell into a little bit of a downward spiral, in which I found myself asking ‘what do I do now’? My confidence started to drop again and I could feel it going down and down.

We all have dreams to achieve, and I had done it all by my early 30s. It was always a concern in the back of my mind, that if for whatever reason I couldn't be a keeper anymore, what would I do?  It was then that I took a leap and joined the Discovery and Learning Team at Edinburgh Zoo.

I became a Discovery Ranger, which was a completely different career route for me. In my new role I hung up my keeper boots and I went from caring for the animals to getting our visitors excited and caring about nature through talks, tours and various activities. If ever there was a job made for me it would be talking about animals all day long in one sense or another.

It did take me several months to settle into my new role but I quickly found my feet.

In just over two years I have seen my confidence grow massively. If someone from university told me I would be standing up in front of audiences on a regular basis, I would probably have laughed. Back then it was my worst nightmare. Now I deliver talks and tours to hundreds of people weekly, where I can get our visitors as excited about nature and conservation as I am. I can share my story with people of all ages, and I encourage them to follow their dreams too.

If a quiet boy from the Scottish Borders can take on such a journey, hopefully I can inspire others that all you need to be is yourself and life will surprise you. No matter what your passion is just follow it and who knows what kind of a crazy adventure you might end up on. My life has certainly been a journey, and in another sixteen years who knows where my path will take me. All of this happened from being myself. Not by being the man other people wanted me to be or thought I should be, and I regret nothing.

- Jamie Norris (He/Him) - Discovery Ranger at Edinburgh Zoo

All blogs reflect the views of their author and are not necessarily a reflection of BIAZA's positions