Sunday, January 31, 2010

Back to the Grind -Choose Happy

The 4th week of my last classroom semester begins tomorrow with an exam and ends with another exam Friday. This week it is officially back to the grind.

I have not written about this semester yet, because I have been confused and unexcited. My patience for powerpoint presentations, tests, and immature/unprofessional classmates coupled with 1 day a week in the clinic has made me yearn for the clinic more than ever. Yes it is scary and yes I know I do not know everything, but I am ready to stop learning by memorizing and start learning by doing. My motivation this semester has waned. I have had moments this semester when I am studying and going through the motions I have done so many times before and I feel like a parody of myself; highlighting, underlining, writing out notes and charts. I have done this all before for 2.5 years and I am ready for a change. I suppose the novelty of vet school and learning all you can learn as fast as possible has worn off and I want to start learning how to put it all into practice and learn how to do the job I signed up to do. I am also over not living with my husband regularly. In fewer words I am done...but I am not. I have 13 more weeks of parodying myself in order to reach 4th year where we cooperate and graduate!

I have many exciting plans for 4th year, and as of this weekend for spring break. Matt and I will be exploring the Grand Tetons in Jackson Hole, WY. I am just ready to reach some of these exciting experiences.

I suppose I should just sit back and enjoy this semester. I dropped all but 1 elective because I wanted more free time. I should use it to work on my patience, my friendships and saying goodbye to the classroom, even if it is slower than I would like. There is no point in rushing my life away, even if something better is on the other side. As Dr. Rick Debowes of Veterinary Leadership Program says, choose happy. That is what I must do.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Back to School Blues

With arctic temperatures abound in the US, it is hard to get excited about going back to an even colder land. (Blacksburg tends to be 5-10 degrees cooler than Washington, D.C.)

I can't honestly say my break was relaxing, but I did accomplish some important tasks. I worked 7 shifts, possibly for the last time as a technician at the Hope Center. I visited 4 other animal hospitals and have definitively decided to do a private practice small animal internship. I worked on funding requests for my externship to China this summer. My mom came to visit from NY and meet the granddog. I did some shopping, got a little sleep (not enough). I cleaned many bathrooms and vacuumed much pet hair. I also got in a little workout time (again, not enough). Consideringmy break is shorter than the rest of the school because I am a third year vet student, it was a veyr prolific break.

The most interesting turn of events, however, was the unexpected purchase of a new car. In our original plan, we had hoped Matt's 1997 Acura would last a year or two after I finish school. Never in our wildest dreams did we prepare for my 2006 Honda Accord to have transmission failure at the tender age of 6 years 80,000 miles. It was a shocker. The next thing I knew, we were sending my NY Yankee to the used car lot and trading it in for a 2010 Honda Insight Hybrid. I didn't have time to mourn, and we barely had time to triple check our decision. We knew of a minimum of $6,000 in repairs on my car alone in the next year and the x factor of additional repairs was very scary. I also was taught when the transmission goes, the car should go. C'est la vie.

The Insight is very fun to drive, easy to park, and more ecofriendly. It has many cute features, but some of the more luxury features of my old car are missing, such as the sun roof, seat warmers, steering wheel radio controls, 6 disc cd changer, powerful V6 engine...etc. I am still getting a little teary-eyed as I write this, but I was proud of our negotiation skills with the car salesman and deep down I know that everything happens for a reason.

I am very grateful I survived the trip back to DC, as apparently the car was very unsafe to drive.

Cheers to the last semester sitting in the classroom!