And back to reality...

Had a fantastic weekend with the boy.  We did essentially nothing - slept in, grabbed ice cream, walked around his neighborhood for a few hours, cleaned up his apartment, watched a few movies and episodes of "Fringe", and made a big pasta dinner.  I brought along my school stuff and actually got a few hours of reviewing notes, reading, and bone part memorization in during the plane rides.  But then proceeded to do nothing during my actual time visiting with him.  When we only have two days out of every two or three weeks to spend together, learning the fossae and tuberosities of the os coxae bones or actions of cholinergic receptors during that time does not get a high place on the priority list.

After getting in late last night on my flight, I started my third full week of vet school bright and early this morning.  I have quite a bit coming up on my plate but I feel like it'll all work out somehow...

Upcoming Assessments:

• Histology quiz on Friday - basic cell function, connective tissues, epithelial tissues
• Bacteriology quiz next Tuesday - stuff from lab, Enterobacteriaceae family
• Anatomy exam next Wednesday - pelvic limb (bones, muscles, nerves, blood supply)
• Physiology exam next Thursday - genetics, genomics, biomath, excitable tissues/action potential stuff

Other Stuff:

• Bills are coming up!  Ugh...
• Schedule rabies vaccinations
• Research for evidence based medicine course
• Decide which clubs to get more involved with and then do so
• Cleaning at some point?  Maybe?
• Meet with legal advisor about residency changes
• Sleep (will NOT sacrifice this!)

Also, the boy and I decided at the last minute to, what the heck, have him visit this coming weekend!  We really love spending time together and figured it would be a huge waste of a three-day weekend not to take advantage of the time with a visit.  The plan is to have him fly in Saturday evening and then fly out to work early Tuesday morning.  I'm hoping that having Friday night and all day Saturday to myself will let me get pretty comfortable with a lot of the material so I'm not studying tons while he's here.  Hopefully it'll also give me lots of motivation to get stuff done during this week, too!

Speaking of which, back to studying!

Goodbye blue jeans...

Well I didn't get quite as much done as I wanted to tonight, but I have a decent reason or two.

I went to do laundry tonight and used some of that "color-safe" bleach on my lab coat to get the formalin out.  I figured, what the heck, I'll add some to my other load to get it extra clean.  Nooooot such a good idea.  Don't know if I did something wrong, but the bleach totally ruined two pairs of jeans and a shirt and ate up my pillowcases.  Grrrrr!

I kept the jeans to use for barn work or something, and the pillowcases will just look pretty pathetic when they're on the bed.  So then I had to go out for an emergency trip to Ross and find a few new pairs to fill out my wardrobe since I didn't have more than a half dozen pairs of jeans to begin with (and one of them is really too short and another is getting holes in the butt area).  Quickest shopping trip for pants EVER, but I found three pairs for $50, which I charged to one of my Christmas gift cards.  Lame way to spend an hour (and holiday money) that you don't have to spare!

Today in class we started the pelvic limb dissection and lectures, and it already seems like going through this process the second time won't be nearly as bad.  We know the language a little bit better, and we've done it before.  It's old hat by now!  I was really hoping to get some studying for histo and physiology in tonight, but writing out my little mini-speeches for class positions ate up my time, and I didn't get much done.  Tomorrow I don't have TAU lab, so I have a 3 hour break during the school day!  I think I'll be holing up in the library to do some catch-up work with that time.

About to go pack for my trip to see the boy this weekend.  It's been three weeks since he was here for the White Coat Ceremony, and I can't wait to see him.  I think we'll be bums for most of the time and hang around the apartment and do nothing...which is just fine with me!  I have a feeling I'm going to be exhausted next week, though.  I'm catching a plane at 7 pm tomorrow night, landing at 11, then departing on Sunday at 5:30 to get here by 10:30.  Lots of traveling but it'll be worth it.

Exam 1 - Done!

Whew!  First anatomy exam and first exam of vet school is finished!  And it wasn't tooooo bad.  I definitely felt prepared and even though there were a couple of questions here and there that I fudged a little, I had an overall good feeling leaving the test.

All I care about is that it's done, and the exam proved to me that anatomy is, in fact, do-able.  Time-consuming and lengthy, but do-able.

Spent the rest of the evening hanging out with a few vet school friends.  We ordered in pizza and watched some movies instead of hitting the bars with another part of the class.  After the build-up to this test, we were just too tired and worn out to go out and drink until late.  We have class at 8 am again tomorrow, after all!

It's not even ten o'clock, and I'm about ready to head off to bed.  Good night all, and I hope your sleep is half as restful as I know mine is going to be!

First Exam

First exam of vet school tomorrow - anatomy of the thoracic limb including bones, muscles, blood supply, and innervation.

My brain is totally full, and I don't think I'm going to study for very much longer.  Another quick review of my notes, and off to bed in the next hour or so.  Either I know it at this point or I don't...and I really feel confident that I know it.  Hopefully it'll come out the right way on the exam and my brain doesn't decide to abandon me halfway through the practical.

Over and out.

Monday, Monday

Another Monday and the start of another week - yay!

More anatomy, such a shocker.  A lot of people are freaking about the first exam coming up on Wednesday - it covers the entire thoracic limb and includes both a practical and written portion.  After some pretty low-key studying this weekend, a few extra hours in lab on Sunday morning, and another hour of review tonight, I feel pretty good.  As in, I think I could take this tomorrow and do okay.  It's a really nice feeling so I hope I'm not just underselling the difficulty of the material.

In undergrad, I was a high-stress studier and learner my first two or three semesters.  Lots of crying over notes, wringing of hands, anxiety, etc.  And I did okay but not great.  Something kicked into gear during my second year, and I stopped a lot of that pretty quickly.  Maybe it was survival mode for organic chemistry, but I started telling myself to just study until I knew it, stop worrying so much, and take what I could get on the exams without losing sleep or tears.  And I did better as a result.  I put less work into it and got a ton more out. 

I think this mindset and method of studying is going to serve me well in veterinary school.  So far, the other classes I have are still in the simple, easy-to-digest stage which is letting me focus on anatomy for the most part.  There will come a time this semester when I have too much information to learn and not enough time to do it, and I need to learn to be okay with that.  And the way that I've learned to think about my schoolwork and how to approach it and interact with it will - hopefully - let me adopt that mindset fairly easily.  As far as anatomy goes, my study habits and the way I digest information has let me reach my personal "saturation level" with the subject a full day before the test.

I know it and I feel comfortable with it.  It's a really good feeling.  Hopefully it plays out on the test.

Other than that, there's a bacteriology quiz tomorrow that I haven't done too much review for.  The professor has released the past quizzes to us, and none of them seemed too tough.  His questions also were pretty continuous from year to year, so they should be a good basis from which to study.

And in other news, I've also tentatively submitted my name for class president and secretary runnings.  I have to decide if I reeeeally want to go for it and submit a blurb by Friday.  Honestly, the classmate also running for prez will have a strong backing, so I'll likely get creamed.  But you don't know until you try!

The arm bone's connected to the hand bone...

Whew!  It was great sleeping in for an hour or two today, but I'm still exhausted!

Was out with a few classmates until about 10:00 last night and had a blast.  Six of us met up for dinner and spent the whole time talking about (naturally) vet school.  I sometimes wish I had more to discuss or share other than that subject, but school really does consume my whole life from sun-up to sun-down.  And so far, I like it that way. :)  We were a little gossipy and compared notes on teachers and studying and classmates and who was going to be first in class and who the cliques would be, etc.  We all seemed to be having really great experiences with our other classmates and hope that it turns out to be a low-drama class.  Med and vet schools have reputations for becoming a little like high school.  When you spend every single day with the same 80 people, everyone knows everyone's business sooner or later.  And when you add in stress and a lot of type-A personalities, conflict always arises.  But so far, so good in our class! *knock on wood*

Today I skipped out on going to lab in favor of staying in the apartment and drilling bones, muscles, nerves, and arteries of the forelimb.  I feel pretty good with most of it though there are a few random pieces that my brain can't seem to retain.  I think tomorrow I'm setting the alarm to go to lab in the morning and look at the models and cadavers and hopefully cement the studying I did today.  Now that I know the paths of the arteries and nerves pretty well, I think it'll be easier to trace them in the cadavers and understand how they work.

I'm also meeting up for lunch tomorrow with a Penn State friend who is starting school at UNC this fall - it'll be great to see a familiar face from closer to home!  I have to remember to make a grocery run on my way home - I love cereal for dinner, but I'm even running out of that!  My freezer is stocked with tons of individually-boxed dishes I made before school started, but I hate to tap into that so early in the semester.  I think I'll also pick up an extra Pyrex measuring cup.  At school there are several microwaves in the cafeteria for our use, so I think I'll store the measuring cup along with tea bags and a travel mug in my locker - it'd be nice to have the ability to make some tea for evening or weekend study sessions.

Time to go do my dishes, wait for the boy to call (he's out camping this weekend), then head to bed.  Can't believe so much sitting can get you this tired. :)

TGIF!

I meant to post yesterday, but it totally slipped my mind - surprised much?

It's our first Friday after our first full week of classes, and I am freaking exhausted!  The days sure are long (7:30 am arrival at school until a 4:30 to 5:30 departure) with an additional few hours of studying to do when I get home at night.  Looking forward to being able to study on the couch in my PJs this weekend instead of heading into school all day. 

We have our first anatomy exam this coming Wednesday, so all of us will be absorbed in that from sun-up to sun-down for the next few days.  My plan is to take off tonight - no or very minimal studying for me (might skim my other classes).  A group of us are going out to dinner after our mock practical, and afterwards I definitely need a break to get to bed early and have a full night's rest.  Tomorrow I hope to get up early and head in to school at 7:30 or 8 am, pull out a dog and cat cadaver, and start going through identification of the muscles, nerves, and arteries for the forelimb.  Head home at lunch and spend the rest of the weekend here with my books and my notes.  Fuuuuuun.

So what sorts of things have I learned this first week?

1) Compared to others in my class, I'm positively mellow about my studies at this point.  Seriously, it came as a surprise to me too.

2) Professional school is more physically and mentally demanding than any job.

3) Free lunches help me get through the day and will definitely be a favorite part of the week.

4) Everything in the body is way more complicated and has way more parts than I ever thought possible.

5) Free time?  Haha.

6) My dreams have become super, super boring.  They all have to do with studying and assorted muscle attachments for some reason.

7) I miss having pets here even more than I thought I would!  It would be sooooo nice to come home to a little dog or cat to cuddle and study with.

8) Despite all of the work, I'm still having a blast!

Omotransversarius = Gay Dinosaur

The title of the post is from one of the lab group's way of remembering one of the muscles in the neck.  It's not a mnemonic I use to remember the muscle, but it sure is funny!  And indicative of how demented we already are as a group.

Bacteriology today was incredibly boring.  I looooved my undergrad micro class and lab, but the professor we have this semester teaching us is...not so great.  The upper classes warned us that he would be the "dud" of the semester, and so far I have to agree.  He's very nice but extremely disorganized and inefficient in class.  He skimmed through a whole section about environmental requirements for bacteria by dismissing it as "boring", which doesn't really help me on an exam or later in clinics.  Lab was also kind of a waste.  We had a twenty minute talk on how to do a gram stain and streak a plate (headdesk) and THEN had to watch him complete one of each in front of us - another ten minutes.  Again, he's a super nice, sweet guy but just not the best teacher.  And this is only our third class with him?  Eeep.

Our lab groups in anatomy switched it up today.  Unfortunately.  My group very reluctantly gave up our pit gal Maude for one of the nasty rotting cats.  And let me just say that while I didn't envy the people dissecting cats for the musculoskeletal system of the forelimb, I feel even worse for us that are now stuck dissecting them for the veins, arteries, and nerves!  Holy crap, they're tiny!  It's like trying to dig out these little blue, white, and pink threads from a mass of congealing, cottony playdoh.  Oh, and the whole thing is so incredibly friable that the muscles are falling apart and shredding left and right.  Identifying stuff for the next week is going to be a nightmare.

But we did get to practice live palpation on dogs today!  We are using the dogs from the animal research lab on campus - today we had two incredibly sweet shepherd mixes named Chloe and Libra assisting us.  And boy did it feel great to snuggle with a real live animal during class and also learn skills that will, you know, be practical in the field.  I can now locate superficial cervical lymph nodes, the spine and acromion of the scapula, and most of the major bones in the brachium, antebrachium, and carpus.  Saweet!  Too bad I don't have a dog of my own here with me to practice.

Definitely miss Jesse and Ginger.  I know that they're not getting nearly as much love and attention without me around.  My dad loves them but he's so busy and not even home half the time.  My mom could hardly care less about them.  Wish I could bring them here to live with me but my apartment's so small and very few places allow GSDs, so Jesse's out.  And I'm really reluctant to separate them or move Ginger now that she's pushing twelve years old.  She's so used to going outside whenever she wants, strolling around the yard, and having a big house to explore and call her own. *sad face*

Oh, and it's T-minus seven days until our first anatomy exam.  Already feeling slightly nauseous...

"When you touch yourself, you are soft and pliable..."

Words straight from our histology/cytology professor today.  He was trying to explain the flexibility of the microtubules and filaments in the skin, and it came out a little awkwardly.  But he also made a "Seinfeld" reference and had "Calvin and Hobbes" comics throughout his Powerpoint, so I was totally okay with it.

First Monday of the first full week of school, and I feel surprisingly rested and awake and ready to conquer my classes.  Good thing since we learned about a dozen new muscles in anatomy and start blood vessels and nerves tomorrow!  I feel like anatomy is the ONLY class I talk about, but it's only because the others are still review at this point - thank goodness!  Gives me plenty of time to figure out how best to study for the class and absorb all of the information.  My lab group has done a freaking beautiful job of the dissection so far (if I do say so myself).  Our pit bull specimen, Maude, is looking great despite the skin being missing and numerous muscle transections on her left shoulder, chest, and forelimb.  This week we're also starting some other anatomy aspects in lab including radiology (x-ray) interpretation and live palpation skills...meaning we actually get to touch a dog that isn't soaked in formalin! 

Histology is actually a lot of fun, too.  The professor (see above) is very sweet, energetic, and thorough.  I've looked at cells under the microscope dozens upon dozens of times, but he's amazing at explaining exactly what we're seeing.  Lab is a good mix of turning us loose with our partners and slide boxes and getting plenty of helpful feedback and hints on how to interpret the slide fields.  It's really the way a class like that needs to be taught.

Okay, and there is a huuuge perk to vet school.  We get butt-tons of free stuff thrown at us.  Including meals!  Almost every single day there's a lunch meeting you can choose to attend during lunch hour, usually put on by different clubs featuring a speaker or presentation.  All you have to do is RSVP, show up, and chow down while learning lots of awesome stuff.  Today the VMBA (Veterinary Medical Business Association) invited a local mobile surgery vet to speak with us about starting her practice.

Mobile care is nothing that I've really thought about before, but she was really, really interesting.  She's a board-certified surgeon (4 years vet school + 1 year internship + 3 year residency + 2 year fellowship!) and has a mobile practice where she travels to about thirty to forty local hospitals to perform the surgeries that the general practitioners don't feel comfortable doing.  A lot of cruciate repairs (TPLO) and other orthopedic surgeries with some additional soft tissue and critical care surgeries thrown in.  Really cool idea for a practice without worrying about the "running a huge business with overhead, dozens of employees, etc." model.  Something I've never thought about before, but it's really fascinating.

That's the blessing and the curse of veterinary medicine.  The variety of things you can do with your degree is ENDLESS.  General practice or specialization.  Rural or urban.  Large or small animal.  Zoo medicine or pocket pet exotics.  Academia or research.  Conservation medicine or pharmaceuticals.  Industry or public health.  There's no excuse to be bored - I mean, you can do anything with that degree!

And that's the downside as well.  I'm fairly undecided about what I want to do, and every speaker or lecturer gets me excited about the possibility of yet another asset to the field.  Unfortunately, you have to decide what to do when you grow up at some point. :(

Vegging...

So I wasn't nearly as productive today as I wanted to or thought I was going to be, but I feel pretty okay with it.  I'm comfortable enough with the material that stress or panic are the last things I'm feeling.  But who knows, maybe I'm utterly fooling myself.

Yesterday was a pretty quiet study day.  First weekend of vet school, and I found myself studying on a Saturday.  Which will probably become fairly typical.  I spent several hours in the afternoon reading through the bones and muscles of the thoracic limb, quizzing myself on bone parts, and memorizing muscle insertions, origins, and actions.  Honestly, while a few bits and pieces weren't quite in my head yet, I felt confident in my level of understanding thus far. 

Treated myself to an Arby's dinner (yum!) before going into the anatomy lab to study.  Yup.  Saturday night in lab.  BUT I wasn't alone!  There were a half dozen other students there, and we had a lot of fun poking through one of the cadavers, coming up with mnemonic devices - some of them are remembering the omotransversarius muscle as "the gay dinosaur" if that gives you any indication - and laughing quite a bit.  Studying in groups is something that, while fun, I don't get a ton of benefit from.  I need to really study stuff on my own to get it to stick.  I do a lot of talking myself through material, repetition, and sketching to understand it, and it just doesn't tend to work for me in groups.  Also, I'm not a crazy-competitive person or anything, but when others I'm studying with are a bit faster at naming a fact or a bit more specific in their answers, I start to get worried that I don't know my stuff nearly as well as I should.  It's usually a morale killer for me.  However, I like reviewing with others once I'm sure I understand and know my material; it's a good affirmation that I'm in an okay spot for the test but I'm not actively learning new things by that point.

Anyway, we quit studying by 9:30 and went to see "Prince of Persia" at the dollar theater.  Which was appropriately brainless fun with some great cheesy moments.  Recommended if you don't want to think too hard.  Or remember the freaking awesome computer game from when you were in second grade!

Got up early this morning and headed into lab at 9:00.  I was crossing my fingers that I'd be by myself - and I was!  Had the whole place to me, myself, and I!  Dragged out one of the cadavers and one of the sample bone sets and quizzed myself for two whole hours before the next students came in to practice.  It was great to go at my own pace, focus on the things I needed to review, and nail down some more specific facts I was missing.  A bunch of us then went to the welcome picnic put on by SCAVMA (Student Chapter of the American Veterinary Medical Association) this afternoon.  The best part?  There was an open dog invitation so there were about two dozen dogs of all shapes and sizes running around, playing, begging for food, and waiting to be cuddled.  Such great therapy when I would kill to have a dog of my own here with me.

I should have studied more when I got home today.  But I didn't.  I vegged all night and don't even know what I spent most of my time on.  Oh well!  Tomorrow morning is my first Monday of my first full week of vet school!  I have a feeling I'll be pooped by Friday afternoon.

Who knew?

Having never taken an anatomy course before now, I had no idea that every single bone isn't just a single bone.  They each have about two dozen crests and fossae and processes that comprise it and allow it to perform its function.  And just learning the parts of the bones of the forelimb is keeping me majorly busy!  It's only the second day of anatomy lab (again, totally foreign material for the most part) and dissecting our cadaver and then comparing it with models and readings at night really is helping everything come together.  I definitely understand now what we were warned about - it's not the innate difficulty of the material but the sheer volume we have to learn.

Each bone has multiple parts.  Each part attaches to one or multiple muscles or articulates with another bone in a joint.  Each muscle attaches to another bone and performs a certain function in a certain location.  Each of these muscles corresponds to a nerve and blood supply.  And each of these components have long Latin or Greek names that must be spelled correctly.

Oy.

So far, challenging and a little overwhelming but fun.  Our other classes - bacteriology, histology, and physiology - are still in review stage for me, so it's giving me a little break to ease into the groove (intertubercular groove?) of anatomy.

I'm also thinking about what clubs and activities I would like to join.  I'll apply for small animal treatment crew, which is a paid commitment of 2 shifts of 2 hours per month - it's competitive, so I'm not sure I'll even get it.  Club-wise I'll be joining PathHeads (pathology), the small ruminant club, internal medicine club, and critical care club; club members get preference for wet labs but the time commitment outside of that isn't huge.  SCAVMA, of course, will be getting my money so I can join said organizations.  And I'm also thinking about running for some sort of SCAVMA or student government position...but we'll see.

Also, I felt like utter crap today.  Sore, tired, achy, even some tummy-ache this morning.  Hoping that this means that I'll be skipping the next bug to go around closer to exam time!  Tomorrow we get an intro to our evidence-based medicine class where we break into small groups and discuss, research, and analyze individual cases.  I'm hoping that it helps lots of different concepts "gel" into a concrete example that's easy to remember and understand.  I don't think I could handle a whole curriculum of it, but a small amount might help more difficult concepts come into focus.

First Day...done!

It's only the end of our first day, and I'm already exhausted!  But I do think I'm coming down with a cold, so I'll write it off as one of the side effects of that.

Today was kind of a blur - physiology lecture (NOT on the exam!) about the rapid pace of biotechnology evolution, histology/cytology lecture (starting in with basic cell bio review), histology lab, anatomy lecture (thoracic limb), and anatomy lab.

The only one that concerns me right now is anatomy.  We've kind of been thrown into it without an idea of what to do.  The depth of the notes versus the dissection guide is pretty inconsistent...so I'm not quite sure just how many of those tubercles, fossae, and edges I should really worry about.  I'm guessing all of them (or at least as many as will fit into my head).  Our first exam is in two weeks and will cover bones and muscles of the limb.  It's a bit smaller just to ease us into testing.

Our group has two dogs (male and female) and a cat.  We started today with just removing the skin from the left cranial sides of the animals, extending from the mandible down to the umbilicus.  Tomorrow we'll get more into identifying actual muscles, insertions and origins, actions, etc. 

Going off now to study a bit more of the forelimb bones before I get too far behind!  And then...glorious sleep! :)

I love binders.

If it feels like I'm dragging out this whole "I'm starting vet school!" thing, then you have an inkling of how I feel.  We had yet another day of orientation yesterday and a day "off" today - classes start bright and early tomorrow morning and not a minute too soon!  The last day of orientation, once again, held a lot of administrative stuff to pound into our heads, but some of it was slightly more interesting.  We had a talk about rabies and infectious disease control (i.e. why you shouldn't pet raccoons) and some info about clubs and organizations.  And we also got an intro to the anatomy lab - how to properly handle instruments, make incisions, suture, and dissect.  Fun but a little overwhelming...still wonder how I'm going to learn everything I'm expected to.

Today I did a few errands and lounged around.  I went to the school to pick up my supplies and books along with my ID badge.  I actually ordered a pretty light load - only the dissection guide, coveralls, lab coats, dissection kit, and a pair of scrubs (no other textbooks!) - and it was still about $350 in total.  Oooooh well.  That's what my impending loans are for!

My first classes start tomorrow at 8:00; we're following a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday schedule this week to get started and are switching to normal next week.  Tomorrow is physiology, histology and lab, and anatomy and lab.  So, have you ever wondered exactly what a week of veterinary school entails?  Take a gander at this, which I'll be following this semester:

I'm definitely excited but wondering how the heck I'm going to physically make it through the days, let alone the WEEKS.  Plus, I don't have a caffeine addiction and don't plan to start one anytime soon.  I'll be making it through the torture au naturale.

On a personal note, I booked a flight to visit the boy in Pittsburgh the weekend of August 27th.  During his past weekend here I gathered all of the class syllabi, wrote them in my planners (yes, multiple), and we found weekends that are good for visits (meaning, I have no exams the next week).  I don't think I've explained our situation too much, but we've been dating/together for about 20 months and have been long-distance for 15 of those.  We were separated by a five hour drive this whole past year, and things were awesome between us; we're both excited about going into this next year despite being an eight hour drive or a flight away.  The really great thing is that his job gives him a ton of flexibility for (fully compensated!) travel, so his coming to see me should be really easy to accomodate.

I've always heard that med and vet schools are relationship killers, particularly long-distance relationships.  I think often about how we'll handle the next few years but I don't really worry about whether we'll be able to do it.  This past year was EASY and really worth it, so I have hope that we can stick to our planned visit schedule and make it work.  Long distance isn't ideal, but we don't really have a choice.  He has work, I have school, and until he goes back to school in two years, that situation isn't going to change.  We figure, sacrificing now when we're young will give us much more time to enjoy our lives when we're older.

Well, off to iron my lab coat, pack my lunch, and hit the hay!  Classes in 10 hours! :)

White coats are rather spiffy.

After picking up the boy at the airport late on Thursday night (lovely stormy weather kept him delayed in Philly), I had another full day of orientation on Friday.  We got a pretty comprehensive tour of the school and hospital, and it really helped us get excited after a long day of sitting and being talked at/to on Thursday.  Some corny team building activities followed and then we had a few more talks about personality types, studying, and diversity.  And apparently my Myers-Briggs personality type is ISTJ, for those who were wondering. :)

Mom arrived late afternoon on Friday, and we packed up to go back to the school for some tasty Carolina BBQ.  Gotta say that even though I will definitely miss Pennsylvania stuff like scrapple, easily available water ice, and cheesesteaks, southern food makes up for it with BBQ, sweet tea, and biscuits.  I fully expect to be gaining some weight this year...

Boy and I saw "The Other Guys" that night, and it is seriously the best "stupid guy-humor" movie I've seen since "Anchorman".  HILARIOUS.  Definitely go see it!  Just to pique your curiosity, there is a two minute discussion on how tuna would annihilate lions in a battle.  Awesome.

And yesterday was my white coat ceremony!  After hitting the farmer's market that morning for some fresh bread, fruit, and veggies, we got all dressed up for my official induction into the field of veterinary medicine.  Each of us went up on stage and were presented and gowned with our white doctor's coats by a person of our choosing.  A lot of us had chosen parents (like I did) or doctors that were instrumental in gaining interest and experience in the field.  Really nice ceremony, and it definitely solidified the fact that, yes, we're here and this is really, really happening.  We're actually starting our training this week and in four years we'll be doctors. 

During the ceremony we recited the modified Oath of Geneva, which really sums up why we're here.  It was a perfect way to close such as signficant day:

I solemnly pledge myself to dedicate my life to the relief of pain and suffering and to sound veterinary practice.

I will give to my teachers the respect and gratitude which is their due.

I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity.

The health of my patient will be my first consideration.

I will use discretion in discussing the veterinary medical concerns of my patients.

I will maintain by all means in my power the honor and noble traditions of the veterinary medical profession.

I will respect the opinion of my colleagues.

I make these promises solemnly, freely, and upon my honor.

Day 1 - Completed!

Out the door at 7:30 this morning for my first official day of vet school (even though I don't think it REALLY counts since it was just orientation and not classes, but let's not be picky)!  Nervous at first but when I got there with 79 other friendly, happy first-years and tasty food was provided, I felt much better.

I met up with the group of six or seven other girls that I've been hanging out with and getting to know these past few weeks and also talked a lot with a few other students.  Unfortunately, it wasn't the most exciting day since it was a lot of faculty introductions and mini-lectures about studying, financial aid (blergh), student services, etc.  Etc.  Etc...Etc.  I mean, it was incredible actually being there and starting but by 4:00 pm, nearly all of us were getting super-antsy.  I felt bad for the last guy who was talking about loans, but I just didn't care by that point.  Also, we had a few icebreakers and they weren't too painful - even for someone like me who usually hates them.

Take away points from the day?

• I found my locker and mailbox and they've already started in with the SWAG!  Walked away today with several notepads and pens and a nice, pretty diagnostic imaging book from Purina.  Cannot wait for the free stuff and food over the next few years.
• The boy/girl ratio is definitely as drastic as we were always told.  Total of 8 or 9 guys out of 80.  Weird to sit in a class and see alllllll females.
• Noticed a few loners today but nearly everyone was super-friendly and excited and talkative, which was great.
• There were FIVE people from Pennsylvania in the class (out of, I think 18 out-of-state students)!!!  Four of whom are from Eastern PA!
• After our financial aid talks, I realized I want to talk and think about loans even less than I did before school started.  Seeing those numbers and figures in print while actually sitting at the school was painful.
• We were given the statistic that we cover as much material in a day of school as in 2 weeks of undergrad.  Eeeeeek.
• We have a ton of very adorable old and British (not always mutually exclusive, either) faculty members - super cute!
• So excited to actually get started!

Going to find myself something to eat - it's sad that all I feel like making for myself is a tuna melt or a bowl of cereal.  Doesn't bode well for the really busy days when cooking might be required.  The boy's flight is slightly rain-delayed so I'm going to pick him up at the airport tonight, hopefully sooner rather than later.  I think one of our missions will be to find a Cookout restaurant and try a milkshake - they're legendary around here!

Tomorrow!

This whole summer I was really doing a fairly good job not thinking about what was right around the corner.  But it's the night of Wednesday, August 4th...and in less than 12 hours I will be sitting in the classrooms of NC State's College of Veterinary Medicine beginning orientation.  Holy crap!

Probably not a surprise to say that I'm getting excited and nervous and antsy and scared all at once - wish it was here right now because sleep won't be coming tonight!

Getting to this point, where I've moved, signed my life away in loans, and am ready for another four years (and then some?) years of education has been lifelong.  For those of you who know me, you know that this has been either at the forefront of my brain or percolating on some back burner for a long, long, long time.  For those of you who don't, becoming a veterinarian, and completing the schooling to get there, has been more than a dream, more than a goal, and more than an ambition.

It has completely defined my life. 

And when it wasn't a certainty that I was going to be accepted - back in calculus or organic chemistry or even this past November when I was waiting for word on my applications - I tried to ignore the fact that literally everything I did was with the intention and hope of becoming a veterinarian.  My first (and only) high school job was at a veterinary clinic to gain experience.  I went to the Pennsylvania Governor's School for Agricultural Sciences to gain experience and insight.  I attended Penn State for both a broad and thorough agriculture education.  I crammed classes for two majors into four years and finished a thesis, joined clubs, and took leadership opportunities because of the benefits they would bring to my application and understanding of the field.  Summers were spent working to gain experience, and I took a year break from school to work in clinical medicine.  This was done with the hope that my application would then be strong enough to allow me to attend a more affordable out-of-state school.

Talk about putting all of your eggs in one basket.  I had a vague back-up plan of taking the MCAT and applying to medical school or maybe getting a master's in public health, but neither were very well thought-out.  Vet school was the goal, and my academic, professional, and extracurricular experiences were all tailored with that in mind.  So I guess it's a good thing I made it here!

Anyway, knowing that nearly every conscious choice and decision I've made has finally, finally paid off and that I'm finally, finally starting this all-important chapter of my life is so exciting.  And so terrifying.  I've wanted this for as long as I can remember, and now, about to begin this journey tomorrow morning, I am taking a deep breath and hoping that it's the right choice for me after all.

Our schedule for tomorrow runs from 8 am until 5 pm and includes lots of talks from academic affairs, professors, counseling, etc. along with some financial aid stuff and photo-taking.  There are also a few blocks of "large and small group activities" in the mix; I'm suspicious they might be ice-breakers, which I mostly hate.  But hopefully it'll be a good chance to meet the other 79 students in my class.  We continue orientation again on Friday, have our White Coat Ceremony on Saturday, and finish up on Monday.  Classes start in a week on next Wednesday!

In other news, my apartment is neat and clean and ready for two visitors this weekend.  The fantastic guy in my life is flying here tomorrow evening, and my mom is arriving sometime on Friday; mom is my coat presenter for the ceremony.  My apartment is kinda teeny (1 bedroom with no defined dining room), so it'll be close quarters for a couple of days.  I'm so excited to be able to relax and enjoy some company before the chaos really starts.

Think I'm going to curl up with a book and cup of tea and try to relax tonight.  10 hours until I climb in the car and start my first drive to school! :)

Freedom is fleeting...

In 48 hours I will be heading off to bed for the last time before veterinary school officially starts for me.  Early Thursday morning I'll be awake and driving to the veterinary campus for my first day of orientation shortly followed the next week by the first day of classes. 

Yikes.

As I sit in my quiet new apartment in my new home state of North Carolina only days away from starting my new journey at the NC State veterinary school, I have to admit to a certain level of nervousness.  Excitement, anticipation, eagerness - those are all there too, of course - but the trepidation of finally starting on this whole "vet school thing" is overwhelming.  Even though I know I'm ready and able to complete the monstrous task before me, I still get those occasional flashes of hesitant thought..."Did they pick the right person?  Can I REALLY do this?  Can a person survive on pizza and four hours of sleep a night?"

Regardless of the answers, there's not much I can do about it.  I'm here.  I've moved, started the process of changing my residency, and ordered my books.  I've signed away my life in school loans.  I've written and highlighted the dates of my exams and quizzes in my planner.  I've started training myself to wake up earlier and earlier each day.  I've cooked and stockpiled meals in the freezer for hectic study days.  I've started this blog, for goodness sake!  I'm as ready as I'll ever be and there's no going back now.

In a little over two days, I'll be driving to the campus for the first time as a VM-1 veterinary student.

Scared?  Yup.  Excited?  Absolutely.