3rd Year Winter Blues, Spring Break in Sight.

Well 4 exams behind me and no more exams for 2 weeks. It feels relaxing. The long days of sitting in class are also behind me, thankfully. So far so good this semester, but vet school is losing its' novelty. I know what I need to do and how to do it, but I am ready for the challenge of the clinic. Despite my blah attitude, I decided I should just sit back and enjoy the last semester in the classroom, where I have time off during the day and my own flexible schedule. The weather, however, is not cooperating. With the snow still piled high and arctic temperatures 20 degrees below normal its hard to enjoy my time.

I hope for winter to pass and a lovely spring to replace it. Spring break in 2 weeks off to the Grand Tetons. Hopefully it will be relaxing, fun and not too cold. In the meantime we have been challenged with sever water damage to the house due to ice and snow in our gutters, Spokane having no temperature too cold for her, and crossfit workouts.

As always I am keeping busy despite the wind trying to blow me over.

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.

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!

Winter Has Arrived.

So finals finally ended. They were long and somewhat painful, but another semester is done and it feels terrific. A snowstorm slammed the DC and Southwest VA area with 2+ feet of snow, making the trip home a little longer than usual.

Once exams ended I splurged on a massage and took a nap. I have cleaned my apartment in Blacksburg and our town house in Northern VA. I am finished with cleaning for a while. I was late with the holiday cards, but they went out nonetheless.

Yesterday I started my internship search by visiting Friendship Hospital in Washington, DC. They have a great intern program and I was impressed by the amount of doctors (22) and the elective week and dental rotations their program has. Since I have only worked at 2 hospitals, it was interesting to see how other hospitals are run and staffed. I was slightly overwhelmed by the amount of work I will be doing as an intern and the 5 days off per year...ouch. The schedule mentoring sessions and rounds made it clear to me that they do value training their interns, and I believe my clinical skills would hugely benefit from a year there. I just need to decide of my marriage and my body can take such a tough year.

Life of a veterinary student= always more to think about.

I will be visiting 3 other hospitals and working 6 shifts at the Hope Center over break. It will be nice to get back into the clinic and visiting the hospitals is very helpful, but both mean not a lot of free time.


Life of a veterinary student= not a lot of free time, even on a break.

I also want to wish all my followers a very Happy Holiday and a Successful 2010.

Finals Have Begun- Let the Good Times Roll

As usual I am in a constant state of finals depression. All I want to do is study and watch tv, maybe read some productive and non-productive material. Instead all I am allowed to do is study. To keep my sanity I work out the bare minimum hour a day, and to keep the dog sane, I walk her or send her off to daycare.

Our first exam was GI yesterday and while it went well somehow, I was delirious taking the exam. I studied all weekend, felt like I knew nothing, and semi-panicked during the exam over one case I couldn't figure out. It lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes. Now I am mentally exhausted, but am forced to push through it for 4 more exams.

One day I will figure out why finals are so horrible. They weren't in undergrad. We don't have any classes to hinder our study time, so what is so bad? Is it that we're at the end and exhausted? Could it be the word "cumulative"? Is it the weight bearing down on us that all we have to do is study? I don't know, but finals exhaust and depress me.

Here's to December 17th!

Another Break Bites the Dust

Sadly, it is the last day of Thanksgiving break. I shopped a little, saw some good girlfriends and family. Ran trails and did some yoga, studied a touch, and lounged a touch. While I could use another week, I am slightly rejuvenated to get back to the grind for just under 3 more weeks. Finals will be hard and as they approach I am getting a little queasy. Compared to the last 3 weeks, however, they should be the same or slightly less stressful since classes won't be getting in the way and thankfully the exams are spread out over 2 weeks.

It will be hard not to focus on my busy winter break. I will going to a wedding, cleaning the house, shopping, visiting veterinary hospitals with small animal internships, entertaining my mom for a week, working 6-7 shifts at the Hope Center emergency clinic, and finishing up the dental modules I signed up for (I only completed 2 of 10 over this break).

Here's to 3 more weeks of the second to last semester of sitting on my butt in class. It's time to push just a little harder.

Made it to Thanksgiving Break!

The 3 weeks of intense examinations finally came to a screeching, exhausting halt on Thursday. For the most part all the exams went well, sacrificing sleep along the way. The night before the neuro exam I stayed up until 1 am studying, the latest I have had to stay up since vet school. It was a true cramming session, but in the end it worked out and I took a nap and watched some tv after the exam.

I am still decompressing and trying to get a few good nights of sleep to become normal again. The past 2 weeks reminded me more of finals than third year, but we have 2+ weeks of reprieve before our hardest final hits, gastroenterology. It is nice that it will be first and we can get it behind us.

Now I have a 8 more days to relax, recoup, cook, eat, train dog, and try to catch up for finals amid other errands and doctor's appointments. Only 3 weeks stand between me and winter break and having 1 more classroom semester to go before clinics.

Happy Thanksgiving bloggers!