Hello world,

Have we met yet?

No?

Are you sure?

I could have sworn I was that veterinarian from that one time

Answering emergency calls at midnight

Because someone’s dog drank antifreeze by accident

Staying up all night to help their pooch

And not minding at all – because that’s a life I’m saving.

Or could I have been that geneticist from the Italian restaurant?

With a microscope and a slab of DNA undergoing metaphase

Conducting experiments on how to prevent this genetic disease

Or helping come up with a cure for Huntington ’s disease.

Or is it possible I was the zoologist you met on that trip to India?

I said I was there for two weeks, helping an organization treat animals

Who were being targeted for poaching

I said then I was going to Africa, to help rhesus monkeys and giraffes.

But I suppose it is also entirely possible that I was that one girl at the coffee shop

With a caramel mocha

Because I needed that caffeine pick-me-up before I went in to pitch that idea

For that new environmentally friendly product

Because that’s what environmental engineers do:

We try and save the world,

One tree, one river, one flower, one delta, one creek, one swamp, one tree, one garden

At a time.