zzzzzzzz

Had my first two shifts as overnight ICU tech and although it was super slow I was really exhausted afterwards. The first night I did the equine side, then last night I did the food animal side. We had pretty boring cases, but I did get to practice enteric precautions on an animal with possible salmonella. Just going to finish up some Christmas shopping tomorrow and get to spend Christmas day at my parents and Friday at my in laws. Not much else going on here.

I can't explain the relief

... of having the first semester of vet school behind me AND I passed all of my classes. Which means I don't have to worry about studying for an advancement exam over break and can relax, sorda. Saturday morning I had orientation for work that lasted 3.5 hours! Sunday morning I loaded up the horses and went to my parents to get their feet trimmed and went to my nephew's 3rd birthday party that afternoon. It is so fun seeing him get so excited about all the fun presents!
Yesterday and today I have been cleaning out the barn and doing all the inside chores that haven't been done in a while. I doubt I'll have a lot of interesting stuff for the next month so posting will slow done. Have a good Christmas!

Old

You know you're getting old when you celebrate your birthday the day after your birthday by taking a nap. Most of the younger classmates are going out to the bars tonight and I couldn't even imagine having the stamina to do that! I probably got around 3 to 4 hours of sleep a night this week and it was awful. The only grade I have so far is physiology 1 and I ended up with a B on the final and in the class. The only class I am truly worried about is physiology 2. I think we should have our grades by Tuesday. Anatomy today had to be the most tiresome test I have ever taken. It is all fill in the blank and short answer and I just about took the full 2.5 hours he let us have for the exam. I know I didn't do nearly as well as I could have, but it was the last final and my ability to study/retain anything else just diminished every day.
I just want to sleep for like the next week, but apparently that is not in my future. Tomorrow I have an orientation for work starting at 9am and should last a few hours. I reaaalllyyy need to clean my house sometime,  too. Sunday I am going to my parents house for my nephews birthday party so that should be fun.
I get to actually work on the 19th, 21st, and 29th over break and I'm pretty excited. One of by vet school buddies used to work in the junior surgery lab at the school so over break I might go over there with her and refresh my skills like catheters, intubation, and so on. I can't remember when the last time a hit a vein was and I'm definitely out of practice. Off to go enjoy no studying! And here is a picture of the flowers by buddies at school got me for my birthday. They're the best!

Plans...

Something you should never make in vet school. School was closed yesterday so our anatomy group final was canceled. The instructor decided to take the average of our previous lab tests and use that as the lab final grade. It has been nice not having to focus on anatomy and start on all the other classes, but it was kind of scary thinking of not having the lab final as a buffer grade. Orientation for the new job got moved to next weekend too, so that was nice.
Got up this morning and studied a little while so I could enjoy (yell at the tv over) some bedlam football today. I can't tell you how much I wish it was a week from now and I didn't have to think about studying for an entire month!

Beginning of the end

We have our first final on Friday. It is anatomy lab final so we are all studying feverishly (yeah...)... oh, and they are predicting a pretty decent winter storm to come through Thursday to Friday. Hopefully it doesn't get bad enough to where it sucks to get to school, but not bad enough to cancel. We would probably have to make it up on the weekend sometime if they were to cancel.
Training for my new job is going well. It hasn't been fun getting to school at 5 am and sometimes not leaving until 7 or 8 that night, but I'm getting used to it. I am only working a few overnights over Christmas break, but it will be nice to start feeling more comfortable over at that vet school hospital. It is amazing how different large versus small animal is as well as vet school versus actual real world practice. Mainly how much money people are willing to spend on their animal. I think it can be a real shock when a vet student gets out into the real world without any previous experience once they realize how little clients actually will spend when it comes to wellness, diagnostics, and treatments for their 'beloved' pet.

really?

I was looking at my stats for today and somehow I had 73 page views in the last 24 hours... I looked at the audience overview because that is super high and saw this...

Malaysia... weird... and 34 views? 

Nothing too exciting lately. Finished up a few quizzes and have one more before Thanksgiving break. Dead week we only have a couple classes and it is all review so studying will definitely be a priority over everything else. Last week I had my equine husbandry labs so I got to do exams on horses all week. Also, I started training for the new job. Getting up at 4am and then having a full day of classes afterwards is not easy! At least it is only 2 days a week until finals week. I got to see a colic case of one of OSU's horses, a horse that was gored in the thorax by a bull, 2 of the sweetest heifer calves, some rodeo bulls with leg injuries (apparently very common), and a really neat neurological equine case on a horse that had been competing at AQHA world show.  We are going over more neurophysiology right now and it is exciting to be able to actually implement what we are learning on a living, breathing animal! It also shows how important anatomy actually is no matter how boring, tedious, and smelly it has gotten (next semester we have equine/comparitive anatomy which is suppose to be a thousand times better).
The actual school part of vet school is going by so fast, and I'm not doing too bad. The feeling that I somehow mistakenly got into vet school is starting to fade. I am no where near stellar in any of my classes, but I know several of my extremely intelligent colleagues are struggling and I feel awful for them. At the beginning of the semester I really thought I would at least enjoy some of my classes, and I did at first, but now... we are all sick of (and somewhat agitated with) every class and extremely ready to just move on and be that much closer to graduating. I doubt I'm going to win any major awards for my grades, but all I'm here for is those three letters behind my name so I can't complain too much.

Time flies when you never stop studying

Oh, wait, that isn't how that goes... None of us can believe it, but in exactly 1 month we have our final final of first semester! That means finals week is 3 1/2 weeks away. How in the world am I going to fit everything I need into my brain before that awful week arrives???!!! Oh that's right, never stop studying! So what am I doing now? Procrastinating on a blog of course.
All we have left this semester before finals is a couple physiology 1 quizzes and a histology quizzam. The anatomy test on Monday was pure evil! My decent grades from the last physiology 1 exam and zootechnology midterm (yes, I know I was worried for nothing about that exam) somewhat kept me from taking all the junk food in the house, ingesting it, and crawling under the covers and hibernating forever until I could find something easier in life to accomplish.
There were 2 things every vet student said you get burnt out on quickly: one of which I didn't think possible and the other I didn't think would happen so fast. Pizza and studying. Well, its true. I am so sick of pizza from all the club meetings and lunch and learns, but its free so you shut up and eat it. Studying... I figured since it had been a couple years since I had hit the books it might take me a bit longer to hit this roadblock, but no... it is something always on the back of your mind, and while I don't feel as guilty when I take study breaks, I still feel that if I had studied just a little bit more maybe I would have got an A.
Oh and lesson of the day: Don't be like me and pay attention in ALL of your undergrad chemistry classes, because that crap comes back again and again in vet school. It will make studying a lot easier!!

Good news?

Had 2 tests and 2 quizzes this week. The quizzes went great. It will be a bit before I know how the tests went, but I think they were ok. The semester is quickly coming to an end and it is kind of exciting knowing that we will all be 1/8 dvm in a few more weeks. Monday we have our last exam until finals and it has to be anatomy! There is a lot of pressure on this exam because if you do well you can replace your worst exam grade with this one; however, in the long run, a couple points don't make very much difference since the final is worth sooo much.
Moving on to the possible good news... a question a lot of people have going into vet school is if you can hold down a job. The answer is usually a resounding NO! But, being crazy me, I applied for an overnight large animal ICU tech position where 1 or 2 weekend nights a month you work in the large animal barn monitering hospitalized cases, administering treatments, helping with incoming emergencies, etc and I just found out I got it. I'm pretty excited I think since it will be nice to have a few extra bucks and more importantly getting to know the staff at the hospital a lot more. We get more info on it next week and I'll keep it updated on how it goes. Hopefully, it won't be too hard on me and get me used to studying working weird hours. It is also a possibility of working more hours over Christmas and summer breaks so it would be nice not to have to worry about finding a job during the non school times.
Other cool things of the week. I got to do a physical exam on a guinea pig and llama one day, sheep one day, and cow another day. The joys of being a vet is how variable every day can be!

Nerves, veins, and arteries oh my!

I should be studying. I'm not sure which subject because all classes have something coming up and I'm not sure which is the most important. I feel like I'm drowning, and thinking that finals week is quickly approaching isn't helping. I'm so unprepared and extremely behind in anatomy, but I have a very important physiology test on Thursday. I wish I could drink coffee and be super woman and pull all nighters, but it just makes my stomach hurt. Last night I crashed at 9pm.... you suck time change!
On Saturday after studying I went by a friend's birthday get together and I got to play with a fellow vet student's baby. She was super cute, but I don't know how she takes care of her and not fail vet school. It was nice hanging out with some classmates and their significant others outside of school.
We've had some rainy weather lately and all I want to do is snuggle on the couch with my puppies, but it looks like kidneys and lungs take precedent tonight.

Glow in the dark cat...

Cool or creepy? Apparently you can get a cloned cat and the cloners added a fluorescent gene so it glows in the dark. As if I needed another reason not to get a cat, ha. We have our zootech midterm (worth 33% of our grade) in about an hour and kinda freaking out about it since we all started studying for it yesterday after the practical portion of histology. I think we maybe underestimated the amount of material on this thing. And why do there have to be so many types of tabbys?! While there can only be 4 questions per lecture we are not sure how specific it is going to be since there is about 50 slides a lecture. This class is supposed to be an easy grade, too!
As much fun as I have with my classmates I'm so ready for Christmas break. Studying constantly is super tiring and always worrying about grades is a little stressful. Better go make sure I can tell the difference between a belgian blue and rhode island red.

Weird

Vet students are weird. While this isn't really news, it can be easily confirmed by listening to almost any conversation we have with each other. The more we talk the weirder we get, too. This can actually be detrimental to other relationships because your significant other will start pointing it out on a regular basis. Like when you show him a video of a macrophage chasing and enveloping bacteria and not only is he not impressed, but points out how lame you are... but when shown in class every vet student is as excited as if it were a chase seen on an action movie.

We just got our first test back from physiology 2 and while the average was a D, which is failing in vet school, I got a C! Never been so happy for a C in my life. From what I have heard the class should get slightly easier from here on out though, so that is encouraging I guess. 

Anatomy didn't go so well... luckily my previous grades helped keep my grade looking decent; however, our final is worth like half our grade so it doesn't matter much what we have going in to it since it is worth so much. Assuming we all make it, I think we have picked out our anatomy group for next semester when we start on the horse. I think I'll like the horse more than dogs and cats... they're bigger and, well its a horse. In zootech we went over exotics and pocket pets and it reminded me how much I love little wabbits! Soo cute and fuzzy, but definitely don't have time or money for another mouth to feed. Speaking of money I found out today that my insurance actually covered every penny of my rabies shots so we just got refunded about 850 bucks!

On a less boring note, I got to do a physical on a cow this week. It is nice getting our hands on something alive and cows are pretty much the coolest. The stethoscope the clinic I worked for got me has come in handy for these labs.  We also added husbandry labs to our schedule and every other week we do physicals monday thru thursday. This week I had the blood donor cats and dogs and while it was interesting the first day, it started to just feel like a waste of time by day 4. At least food animal then equine are my last 2 rotations so that should be more fun.
Tomorrow morning I'm helping my husband work some calves and while I am a little sad my histology study time is getting disturbed, I'm excited to get some fresh air. Off to curl up to learn about some nephrology, bleh.

Dull

Not much going on here. Went to Texas last week and had a great time with the family. The most glorious part of the weekend... not studying one bit. I want to say that it made me refreshed and ready for more studying, but I'd be lying. Most of us are completely over the excitedness of vet school and very warn down from the constant studying. I am constantly amazed at how much I am retaining when I study though. I did really well on my histology quizam last week, but we are all still waiting on physiology 2 grades; however, most of us could do without knowing how horrible it went.
We got to learn how to do physical exams on horses yesterday and it was so nice to do something I felt comfortable with. Definitely decreased my stress level by a thousand points. Next week is food animals handling and techniques and I'm excited about that, too. Monday is our 3rd anatomy exam. I'm a little worried because I haven't done a ton of studying for it, but my lab partner and I reviewed today and a knew a little more than I had thought.
I need to bake some cookies tonight to help with a bake sale fundraiser for our class. They are selling them at walk around for homecoming tomorrow. Oklahoma State apparently has an awesome homecoming, but I haven't really gotten into it before. Hopefully they can make some money, but it is suppose to be rainy, cold, and icky tomorrow so I doubt I will start enjoying it this year. Plus Saturday has been allotted for studying anatomy. Better go feed and snuggle my own horsies and get to baking.

wait... what day is it?

Somehow, the worst week besides finals week of the semester has come to an end and fall break has begun... and I'm still alive?  I don't think I have studied more in my life than I did this week and it still didn't feel like enough. This was the first week I actually sacrificed sleep to get a few more hours of studying.
Monday was phys 1 and we got the test back a few hours ago. I didn't do fabulous, but I'm still ok with my grade. Histology wasn't as bad as I was anticipating, but that doesn't mean it went well... it was histology after all. Probably won't get that graded and back for at least a week. We ended up not getting our exam for Jurisprudence & ethics which is nice to have one less thing to worry about. Physiology 2... I don't even want to talk about. It is what broken dreams are made of. Anatomy had a little quiz assignment today and it actually wasn't too horrid. Every few weeks we rotate animals so we can learn on different specimens so we must evaluate the previous groups dissections. All I can say is that I'm glad my anatomy group isn't worried about staying late to get everything done and done right because our new specimens were definitely no where near being dissected correctly/fully. Apparently reading directions and asking questions is above some people, but it is their grade that it hurts, not ours.
I am going to start  drinking away always remember the memories of this week...

Free time... what is that??

We had our second anatomy exam on Monday and while I didn't do as well as the first exam, it was no where near as bad as it could have been so that's good. We finally got our histology grades back from the test almost 2 weeks ago. I did horrible on the multiple choice part and my practical part somewhat made up for it, but again not as good as our first quizam in there.
This coming week is not going to be fun. We start on Monday with physiology 1 exam and it is mainly neurophysiology. We had a different professor lecturing and she was extremely hard to understand/follow so it turned into a more self taught and using your classmates as resources to learn the information. Tuesday we have a histology quizam. Knowing what to expect for this one will help make it a tiny bit better. Wednesday we are handed out our take home Jurisprudence & ethics midterm and have over a week to work on that (yeah let me get right on that...). Thursday is our first physiology 2 exam and it is going to be mostly respiratory physiology which, like I said I really enjoy. Friday starts our fall break and I get to go down to texas for my cousins baby shower and I'm super pumped about getting a little break after this horrible upcoming week.
We have really got into dissecting our dog and cat in anatomy and it is definitely not my forte. My partner I am with all semester is super nice and usually pretty prepared, but is very meek and I feel like I am doing most of the dissecting because she doesn't really get in there and do what needs to be done. Sometimes you have to be a little more rough than you'd think. So needless to say her and I are very slow which backs up my whole anatomy group. I really wanted to get into the anatomy lab some yesterday to review, but it definitely was not a top priority with everything else we have to study for next week so one of my study buddies and I stuck with the other stuff. Our test on Monday was moved to 8am so we don't get so distracted studying for it instead of paying attention in our other classes. That gives us a 2 hour lunch and plenty of time to review.
Off to make sure I know everything about the autonomic nervous system, skeletal muscle, microscopic lymphatics and digestive system, and whatever else I may be ignoring forgetting.

*Sigh*

We learned why we sigh this week. Respiratory physiology is actually a lot more interesting than I would have thought. There have been little factoids every day that really keep me interested.
We also had what will probably be the highlight of first year this week: goat castration. Did physical exams, trimmed hooves, and did all the surgical injections as well as actually removing the testicles. A nearby school has a huge goat program that saves about 100 goats for 1st years to castrate. Some other good news, the outcome of my physiology 1 exam was quite good considering my dislike for the material.
On the downside was my anatomy quiz and multiple choice part of my histology exam. Not sure how the practical portion of histology went yet though. After taking that depressing histology exam un motivation has been a real problem. I don't understand why a professor tries to trick you with questions. That doesn't seem like the best way to test the knowledge of a subject to me, but obviously the students don't get much say in that aspect. I was starting to feel like I was getting the hang of vet school until this week, too.
Extracurricular activities have definitely been on the back burner,  too. I spent about 8 hours organizing and studying for our second anatomy exam (which is Monday) with some classmates at school. Our current professor is horrible at presenting/delivering everything we need to know and everyone is really ready for our original professor to come back.
I feel like all I do is complain about vet school on here, but I am glad to be here, it's just so much easier to point out the negatives than the positives. My classmates are amazingly helpful and supportive. Everyone is willing to share study guides they have made and helpful hints. While sometimes it feels like high school again, mostly everyone here is pretty great. Better go cram in a few more facts before my anatomy test.

Brains

My head is overflowing with brains and not in the good way. After I started feeling really good about the skull we started the brain and it kind of makes me want to cry. Knowing all the sections and their functions wouldn't be too bad, but when you add in nerves, where they start and end, what they affect, and oh yeah, arteries. Oh and we have a quiz over it all on Friday :(. Which wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have a histology exam and physiology quiz on Monday. Can we please add a few more hours to the day?
Tomorrow we are going to OSUs feedlot for zootech. Normally I'd be excited, but I worked there for a semester and had a stocker feedlot class in undergrad as well as my husband being an assistant manager at a feedyard so now I feel like it is going to be a waste of valuable study time.
We find out how we did on our physiology 1 test tomorrow. I feel ok about it, but everyone studied super hard for the cell bio part and not so much for the neurophysiology part and the neurophysiology part ended up being exceptionally harder. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.
The cool (yes i just said cool because vet school is lame) part about vet school is that your classes sometimes overlap material, so while learning about muscles in histology we are also covering it in physiology. Makes studying a lot tinge easier. Bleh, studying...

**** just got real

That seems to be what every first year has said this week. We got our anatomy exams back on Monday and the class average was an 81. I did better than the average, but I want to avoid the whole who did better than who stuff and just say that I was pleased with my grade, but there is always room for improvement. We got our histology quiz back today and I have the same sentiments for it, too. I did do better than I had thought though, so that was exciting.
Just as everyone was rejoicing over the first exam being over we started learning the skull in anatomy and all I can say is OMG! There are more holes, protuberances, etc on the skull than everything else we have learned combined. I feel so behind in everything right now and every second spent not studying I feel guilty. (Like right now)
We started physiology 2 on Monday and that extra 4 hours in a classroom a week really is exhausting. On Monday's we spend 3 hours sitting in the same cramped classroom trying to pay attention and boy is it hard. Then we get another 3 hours of anatomy after that.
We have a quiz in neurophysiology on Thursday and a physiology 1 test on Monday and starting next week we have a test every week pretty much until finals (goodbye weekends!) Hopefully I can get everything organized by this evening so I can get a good nights  some sleep. I was sooo hoping to stay fit by working out in the morning but I have found that if I want a parking spot within a mile from the school I have to leave my house by 7:30 and up by 6:30. If I want to work out in the morning it would require getting up way too early and I'm so exhausted after sitting in class all day that I can't motivate myself to do it when I get home. I know those are all lame excuses, but right now that is all I've got.
Get rabies shot 2 tomorrow, bleh. Luckily I don't have a zootech lab tomorrow so I can use the whole afternoon for studying. Yay...

Firsts

Got my first rabies shot today around 8:30 this morning and no reaction yet. It didn't hurt too bad, but I have 2 more to go and I've heard it only gets worse.
We had our first histology exam yesterday... and I really have no idea how I did. I know it wasn't an A and I walked out second guessing myself. Definitely not a good feeling. Everyone is calling it a quizam because it was probably the biggest quiz anyone's taken.
Exam number 1 is tomorrow and its for anatomy. I think I feel prepared, but who knows. I got an A on the last anatomy quiz and that is reassuring, but I want to excell on this test because I know anatomy is only going to get harder from here on out so maybe I can have a little buffer. I was studying with some classmates on a break today and I can really notice a difference spending a few hours in anatomy lab on the weekends is making and you can pick out the people who haven't quite easily.
Physiology 1 is going okay. Not a favorite class by any means. We add physiology 2 next week and it is supposed to be a VERY tough class. So not only do we have to manage our classes now getting harder, we get to add one. I can feel the stress building up by the copious amount of acne covering my face... it looks like a terrible pizza.
I get a break this weekend and I get to see one of my best friends get married. It will be nice not to have to concentrate on school for a few hours and hopefully I won't feel too anxious not studying since all we have next week is a neurophysiology quiz on Thursday.
In zoo technology we got to learn how to do basic physical exams on dogs today. Classmates brought in their own dogs and my first one was on an adorable 10 mo old aussie and she did great. Next, was a Very well behaved jack russell and I actually found an abnormality on her that no one had noticed before. It was nice to know I was thorough but I definitely felt bad showing the owner, especially since it was a fellow first year. Hopefully it turns out to be nothing, but at least it was a toe in the water of giving bad news. I feel ahead of the game when it comes to some small animal stuff because of everything I learned working as a technician at a small animal clinic.
Well, the intermedioradial carpal bone is calling my name..... what is a sonovial joint again?

one more day

Until a 3 day weekend... full of studying :(. This week has gone pretty good.  Had a pop quiz in anatomy on Monday which I did decent on, but definitely learned how specific you have to be when describing something. To make more sense our professor said if there is an arrow pointing to a structure you must describe it so well that if someone else read your description they would be able to place the arrow in the same exact place. Not as easy as it sounds. We have an 'assignment' tomorrow in anatomy which is pretty much a quiz. It shouldn't be too bad, but I should be studying right now.
Had a physiology quiz today that a did pretty good on,  too. I studied really hard for this one and it ended up being 10 times easier than the first. We had an extra credit quiz in histology on Tuesday which I felt good about. Had a couple questions, but I think I've already cleared them up.  We have a real quiz on Tuesday in histology that is going to cover epithelial tissues and connective tissues. I think I have epithelial, but connective I really need to study. Next Thursday we have our first test and it is in anatomy. A little nervous about it, but it you get to work with an assigned partner, so hopefully 2 brains are better than one.
Off to reinforce which ones are tubers, tubercles, tuberositys, and trochanters.... oh anatomy!

uhhh...

No title because brain too full. First full week of classes is complete and I am full of a lot more dismal adjectives to describe vet school than I was last Friday.  It can't even be compared to under grad. As much as I love to learn it is ridiculous that amount of studying done by vet students. I am definitely feeling the sting of not having been in a school environment for several years. I have yet to even watch a full tv program this week. I don't think I probably need to study as much as I have been, but I don't want to get out of the habit.

We had the club fair on Thursday and I think I am going to join equine, bovine, canine, and therio. Depending on how the canine goes, it may or may not last long on my list.

So far I have had all my classes except phys 2 which we will add in a couple weeks. I think I am a very visual learner and anatomy and histology are going to come easier to me than physiology. I didn't do too excellent on the first quiz and the main reason is that I rushed through it and made stupid mistakes. I felt I knew the information well, but I didn't read the fine print. I need to force my self to slow done and focus especially on the questions that are a paragraph long and require you to apply your knowledge rather than regurgitate info.

Tomorrow I plan on going up to the school in the morning to reinforce the anatomy bones of the forearm and maybe work on a better way to organize my physiology notes. I have been really trying to stay on top of my physical fitness, too. One of the doctors I worked with said when she had a good fitness regimen in school she was able to learn and retain info more easily so I have been getting on the treadmill in the mornings before class and going through some notes. Hopefully I won't be a whale by the end of the 4 years. Better not procrastinate my 'fun' filled weekend any longer...

I'm a survivor

Of the first 3 days, anyway. Nothing too exciting has happened yet,  but we have our first quiz tomorrow in physiology so then might be a better indicator of how everything is going. I have tried to get in about 5 hours of studying in a day. We haven't had much new information so I have been just reviewing lecture notes and going through study guides. While none of the concepts are too foreign, it has been a while since I've had it in undergrad so i am very happy to get this review.

Last night hills put on a dinner at hideaway pizza to learn about their company. It was nice to go out and interact with other first years outside the school. Tomorrow purina is providing chick fil a for a lunch and learn. Yay for more free food! They also have a position opening in the spring as their junior rep that I would be interested in. I'm not sure how competitive it is so hopefully tomorrow they will discuss it some more.  Tomorrow evening they are having a club fair. There are a ton of clubs I want to join, but as always,  time and money are concerns. Well, better get back to studying Physiology and do some reading for anatomy.

Freedom

... for a few more hours anyway. Classes start at 10am tomorrow and I have prepared more now for the first day then I ever did in under grad. I skimmed through my syllabi, read some required reading for anatomy and worked on my directional terms, and even went through all the powerpoints that were already posted. I got a Samsung Note tablet so hopefully I can take all my notes on it and not have a ton of paper overtaking my entire house. I am not tech savvy at all so it takes me forever to do anything with it though.

Yesterday I went to one of my good friend's bachelorette(sp?) party at my home town where I got a pedicure (bye bye last few dollars in my bank account). We all then went out to McNellies, an Irish pub in Tulsa. It was nice to see some old friends and I'm excited that I'll get to again in a month for the wedding.

Today my husband (I really need to name him something simpler than that) and I went over to Mulhall where his parents live and had lunch with them for his Mom's birthday. I am really lucky that I have the best in-laws. They have been super supportive through our whole relationship. On our way home, I stopped in Stillwater and met my 2nd year buddy and picked up old tests and stuff. She seems nice and will probably be a helpful resource in the future. Her biggest piece of advice was to get help the moment you know you are struggling with a class or concept. It happens to everyone and if you wait too long, it will make your life much harder.

Spending my last fews hours watching tv and surfing the interwebs before I will feel like I am just procrastinating instead of studying!

It was nice to meet you

Well, here goes nothing. I am starting vet school on Monday and like many other vet students I figured I would start a blog. I know, exciting, right!? There were a few reasons I wanted to do this: keep record of how much I hated loved vet school, for family and friends that want to know why I disappeared for 4 years, but mostly for the people who aspire to be vets one day. When I was struggling to decide what to do for the rest of my life I came across a few blogs that really influence and pushed me to follow the path that took me where I am today.

A few things about me... I am a non-traditional student, meaning I didn't go straight to vet school after ungrad. I am married, have 3 dogs, 2 horses, and live out in the middle of nowhere on a cattle ranch that my husband works for. I was born and raised in Oklahoma and have lived here all but about 10 months, when I moved to Kansas to be with the hubby after under grad while he worked as an assistant manager at a feed yard. I plan on being a mixed animal practitioner if once I graduate.

So far, we have had 2 days of team building orientation and a white coat ceremony. Classes this semester will include anatomy, histology, Physiology 1 & 2, Zoo technology, and Jurisprudence & ethics.  People keep asking if I am excited, and I say yes because that seems like the right answer. Truthfully I am mostly scared that I won't make it for 2 seconds. Apparently this is called imposter syndrome and almost everyone feels it after the initial excited 5 minutes when you receive that acceptance letter.

Well, I can't promise this to be the most eloquent, witty blog, or that I will be able to post updates every day, but I still hope it helps someone.  If anyone has any questions or comments, don't hesitate.
Oh and it was nice to meet you!