It All Started with a Hamster

Ilona Králik


On a warm spring afternoon a five-year-old little girl experienced one of the best days of her life at that time. When she arrived home after kindergarten, she saw something small moving in a cage. It was a dwarf hamster, her first pet. Of course the family had dogs and cats, but it was different; this was her own pet, only hers.

This little girl was me. I always knew that I loved animals, but this was the moment when I realised how much I actually like them. After that hamster I almost always had my own pet besides our family’s ones. As years passed by and I got older, I started to show more and more interest in nature and biology. With this growing interest, a crystal-clear idea of my dream future started to form in my head: the idea of becoming a doctor and helping those in need.

Based on everything that I have already mentioned, anyone would think that I would like to become a vet. Well, this is only partly true; at first I thought that it would be the career of my dreams, and I still think it is an amazing idea, but it is not my biggest desire anymore. In the past years I decided that I would like to become some type of doctor, but not a vet.

My love for nature has not changed, for sure. I just realised that I do not necessarily have to have a job related to it to help. One of my closest friends always says that I love animals too much to become a vet. Since I am shy in front of people who are not that close to me, not many people know this about me. When I spend time with my close friend group I am actually very open and talkative, and I love hanging out with them.

In conclusion I am sure that I can fulfill my dreams by becoming a doctor. I know that this journey will be hard and will consume a lot of energy and time, but I feel more than ready to start it, and in the end it will be worth all the hard work put into it.