For many kids growing up, their dream is to become a veterinarian. However, things like organic chemistry, eight years of college, endless biology classes, GPA's, family and more, often steer many onto a different path leading them to become a doctor, engineer, teacher, etc. My life path never deviated though, from my initial dream to be a veterinarian. So, here I am today, writing this column, one day after graduating.
For those who aren’t familiar, veterinary school is usually an eight year process. The first four years are typically spent obtaining an undergraduate degree while completing the prerequisite classes and hundreds of shadowing hours with veterinarians. Then the application process begins. We take the GRE (Graduate Record Exam) and complete a lengthy application. After that, the waiting begins as we hope a school will call to offer us an interview.
Assuming someone gets an interview, they go to that school (which can be a few hours drive or a long flight across the country) and are interviewed by two or three faculty members to further assess their candidacy. Once that day is over, all an applicant can do is wait. We wait to hear if we will be offered a spot, put on a waiting list, or denied altogether. If you are lucky enough to be offered a spot like I was, then the real work begins.
Veterinary school is four years of grueling class work, labs and clinical rotations. It is not unusual to spend 35-40 hours a week attending classes and labs, with equal or more time spent outside of classrooms studying. The first year...oh, how it drags on, making it seem like the four years will never end. The second year, well it is the most intensive of the four as far as book work and being a challenge in itself.
Then, suddenly, third year arrives, flies by, and now you are a fourth year, seeing patients in the clinic and studying for "Boards."( a lovely experience of 6-7 hours of multiple choice questions to determine your worthiness to practice veterinary medicine). Some of those 18 hour days spent at school made it seem like clinics would never end, especially with studying for boards. But, overall, I can say they did fly by.
That leaves me here. I have student loan debt that could buy a house (literally, a house!), but I also have a diploma that presents me with a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine degree and a letter stating I passed my board exam. Now, I stand at the beginning of the next step in my education — practicing veterinary medicine. I say the next step in my education because, in all honesty, as the Veterinarian’s Oath states, this profession and its practice require life long commitment to learning.
As I prepare to practice, I am grateful to many people for their help along my journey, but at the top of that list are the private practitioners who took so much of their time to teach me during the many hours I spent shadowing them. They steadied my hands as I learned new procedures and as I sutured. They taught me as I analyzed blood work and worked through cases. They are who helped to shape me into the veterinarian I have become today. I do not know where this profession will take me, but I look forward to every step of the journey as I continue to fulfill my dreams.
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