Two Oceans Aquarium Marketing Coordinator Jacinta Subjee celebrated 20 years at the Aquarium on 1 February 2016.
The other day I found myself facing what might be the most challenging thing in any home: finding sufficient closet space. And so, I had to once again begin the depressing exercise of “de-cluttering”.
My husband, being a typical male, accuses me of being a hoarder. Men! They don’t understand the importance or significance of mementos and keepsakes.
I soldiered on, slowly, painstakingly, rummaging through all the stuff I kept over the years, and came across my many old Two Oceans Aquarium uniforms.
As I laid them out on my bed, they created a kaleidoscope of brightness and colour and together wove a beautiful tapestry. And just then, without warning, I was overwhelmed by a flood of emotion and memories.
I reminisced about my first experience at the Aquarium: arriving at an incomplete concrete structure for a job interview and getting lost in the building. It seems such a laugh now, after all these years, that I could possibly get lost in this place.
But there are days when you really can “get lost” here. I can spend hours at the Ocean Basket Kelp Forest and forget all my problems; I lose myself in the hypnotic sway of the kelp plants in the water. They look like an elegant troupe of ballerinas pirouetting across a stage. I love sitting there whenever life gets in the way of a perfect day. But this is not my favourite place in the Aquarium…
That is reserved for the Touch Pool.
Not only is it because this is where I had my very first introduction to the “underworld”, but also because this is where I first developed my appreciation for the plant life and sea creatures that inhabit our oceans. I remember the first time that I assisted at the Touch Pool, and the little girl who nervously asked if she could touch the anemone. Her reaction and excitement will remain with me forever, and I still have flashbacks to that moment every time I walk past the Touch Pool.
I remember all the friendships I made over time; some for a short season and others who are still around.
Each golf shirt, sweatshirt and T-shirt tells its own story and pulls me down sweet-memory lane.
Twenty years have gone by in a flash, and yet I can recall each year as vividly as if it were yesterday.
You may think that 20 years at one place is an accomplishment in a world where people tend to change jobs every three years.
The other day I got to work and, instead of sitting at my desk, I decided to join our team on a boat trip as they went to release an ocean sunfish back into the wild. Where else do you have the opportunity to call the wonderful, vast expanse of the ocean your office for a day?
I never get any lip from my bosses – maybe because they are too busy swimming, or I don’t hear them because they are underwater. OK, maybe it’s not that perfect, because I do get chirped by penguins …
Yes, the marine plants and animals at the Aquarium are my bosses. After all, everything we do is geared towards ensuring that they are happy and healthy. What’s your work environment like?
After 20 years at the Aquarium, I know I would not want to be anywhere else.
I guess my only regret is that I don’t know how to swim, and have set myself the goal of learning not only to swim but also to scuba dive so that I can experience the beauty of the ocean from an even closer vantage point. Perhaps when I reach my 21st year at the Aquarium I’ll be able to celebrate with an adventure dive in the I&J Predator Exhibit.
I was there the other day and asked a ragged-tooth shark if he thought I was wrong to want to keep my Aquarium keepsakes, and he didn’t answer me. So I took his silence to mean that he agreed with me. Looks like the males of the species at my work seem to understand me better.
Oh and, by the way, I never did end up throwing anything away at home.
