Where Do I Take This Hobby?

My name is Cameron, and i am a 14yr old boy living in southern Maine. My current collection consist of 1 full grown red eared slider, 2 baby red eared sliders, 1 baby b&w arg tegu, 1 juvenile pastel bp, 1 baby amel het for motley corn, and finally 1 full grown super hypo carrot tail leopard gecko. Currently i feel like like i am running in a circle with my hobby. i don't have a species or even a class of reptilia that is my forte. i have nothing of the same species except for the turtles which i don't want to breed, so i currently cant breed any thing. i want to get rid of the baby turtles because i bought them on an impulse and i don't really want them. i want to specify my collection i don't want to sell the bp, the tegu, or the full grown turtle. but other than that i am open to sell things. its not that i don't love the other animals but i just don't think i want to move in the direction of those animals. As well as this my parents don't like me selling things because they feel i have made a commitment to the animal and should keep it. i feel like i don't have any thing to move forward with. i haven't found something that i love so much that it blows me away, except really the tegu. but i also love snakes, and i haven't had one yet but i think tortoises would be awesome. i don't think want to go into something that every one has, but i i also don't want to go into something that no one will buy. Im sorry if this post was really long and confusing, but what do you all think i should do?

camb, are you a member of the Maine Herp Society? They have meetings and small events. Maybe you could hang around with some of the members at meetings, etc and it would help you see and learn and give you an idea which direction you should go. It's hard. You are fourteen-- at your age, it is hard to know what direction any part of your life is going to go and honestly, you want to keep lots of options open, IMO. Maybe what you could do is spend time with some good herp people, just listen and learn and watch what others are doing. Maybe schedule some visits with Kara and Kevin down at NERD. I go down there semi regularly to see the critters and my son is 15. Maybe at some point you could hitch a ride with us if your parents are good with that and go down. You don't have to choose yet. Since you don't have a clear idea, now is your time to gather information. I am a big believer in this: Life's path will become clear when it is time. I know that sounds a little dorky and a little zen, but if you can just bide your time and absorb as much as you can, when the time is right, you will know what steps you want to take.

I hope that helps a little. Not very specific.

The other thing I thought of is-- maybe you could find a place to do some volunteer work with reptiles or an internship type program? Sometimes working in the field you are interested in helps you figure out what exactly you like and don't like...

Thanx so much ZinniaZ. Do you live in Maine? i used t be a member of the herp society but i was never able to go to meetings, because even though i am in maine i live nearly 2 hours away from were they meet. I have actually volunteered at nerd twice and i want to go more often, but i can never get a ride. and recently school has been a lot of work so it hasn't been very convenient to get down there. I am always trying to meet new people into herps, infact my high school advisors husband is a herpetologist, but i dont think that she is that into them. thanx for the help, i will defiantly get back into the herp society too.

Yup we live in southern maine. MY son is on here too-- his username is Paradox. Maybe it would be cool to have the Maine Herp society do a meeting down in this part of the state... or maybe just a get together.

I would love to do that, and where in southern Maine? i am in kennebunkport.

We are in buxton. I think 20 minutes or so north of kbunk. It would be easy to pick you up next time we go down and our car is huge. I can talk with your parents and meet them so they won't worry. Or we could all go. Maybe during feb vacation?

That would be so cool. im sure my parents would want to talk to you, cause they are all worried about internet predators and thing (well, more my mom). But thanx again, we should definitely stay in touch.

Yup, I wouldn't let my son go off with someone from a forum without checking them out well either. Let's check in over feb vacation and see if you two guys could at least get together and talk herps.

PS-- That's why I even joined this forum-- to watch over my son and make sure the people here were not lunatics. ;)

I have absolutely nothing to really add to this thread, ZinniaZ seems to have pretty well covered everything you had questioned, camb.

I just wanted to put into words how cool I think both of you are! ZinniaZ you are passionate about helping and it seems like you love children in a way that needs to be seen more. Also, I love the way you ended your last message by saying the motivation you had for joining. Being active in the life of your child is something I don't see often enough, and want to thank you!

Finally, camb. =]

What can I say? You are 14 and actually craving direction and focus! I know 30 year olds who haven't decided to try to make their minds up about anything, and you are doing this! My hat is off to you. Please, keep that dedication and when you get older, bring it to Congress, everyone knows they could use some dedication and focus. :)

Bloodsong

I say take this hobby to college. If you like it enough to make a career in this general field. You can get a degree in a sort of science, mine is in biology, and work at a zoo, museum, or a college if you get a masters. Just a thought when I see a young herper, to throw the idea out there.

You guys are TOP NOTCH AWESOME!

I just LOVE kids who have the desire to make something of their lives. Too many times, I meet some teen-agers who has no other desire but to troll the malls and play their videogames.

Zinnia got the cool answers, I have to say. Definitely consider her advice. I'm going to give out 2 stories of people I know who started off where you are at about the same age.

First is this guy who owns the Reptile Store close to my house. He has always been a "critter keeper" since he was a kid. His mom tells me that he would hide lizards and such that he brings home from the backyard to keep as a pet. He doesn't have a single favorite. He loves them all! He is now in his late 20's and opened up a reptile store. He knows all about anything in his store. He has all kinds of lizards, spiders, turtles, snakes - including venomous ones, and even pet hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, ferrets, and a spider monkey in his store! It is a great store and the animals are very well taken care of. His parents work in the store with him. The cool thing about him is he will tell you straight-up - you have to research everything there is to know about owning a monkey before you think of buying this monkey. Or, he would say, that bp hasn't eaten for a month. And all that stuff.

Second is this 12 year old that I got our spider bp from. He specializes in ball pythons and corn snakes. He goes to reptile shows, buys baby snakes that he thinks are awesome, keeps it for a few months, then sells it locally. He gets to have them as pets for a little while and he makes some money from them for his college fund. He doesn't breed them - or at least, not since we last talked.

I know there are some cool teen-agers out here - I know DutchHerp and his friend - can't remember his name - are big into reptiles. I think DutchHerp is going to college for herpetology or something.

Hopefully, that gives you some ideas.