Last man standing, or first man down?

Seriously?! I have the beginnings of a cold, and it is only the 8th day of class. ARG! Worse yet, I don’t think I’m the first one from our class to be out due to illness. A warning to future students: vet school hits you hard, and fast!

I started feeling icky a few days ago, but didn’t start feeling really yucky until yesterday afternoon. And then I felt a smidge better yesterday evening, and I thought, “Tomorrow’s only four hours of class–I can go, and then sleep, right?”

But then the little birdie’s voice said, “If you’re sick, stay home.”

Why is it that I have such a problem staying home when I’m sick? Thirty years ago, I would have given up my lunch money to stay home from school. I get really annoyed when other people come to school sick, so why do I have a problem staying home?
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Sep 01, 2010 | 0 | School Daze

Anatomy’s Everywhere, Man

Anatomy is the biggest class we have this semester. It’s something like 9 credit hours, and it consists of a constant barrage of anatomical information, plus a semester-long dog dissection. Skin, muscles, bones, gaits, tendons, ligaments, OH MY!

I think, though, that it’ll also be the coolest class…
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Aug 30, 2010 | 2 | School Daze

Zombieland

So, honestly, I’d intended to write a blog entry on my very first day of vet school. And my second. And here it is the third, and it seems like I’ve already been in school for three weeks. My head is going to EXPLODE! I mean that in a good way. :)

Our first day started out with Dr. Fails’ anatomy class, and let me tell you, I don’t think there is a better person to have welcomed us to our very first class in veterinary school than Dr. Fails. She was enthusiastic, empathetic, funny, well-spoken… just, wow. She really made me excited for the coming four years, and indeed my entire new career.
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Aug 26, 2010 | 1 | School Daze

Oriented and Exhausted

School hasn’t even started yet, and already I am TIIIIRRRRREEEEEDDDD.

Last week was 5 1/2 days of orientation. But before I tell you about that, I should mention that the week before was spent painting for three days, moving furniture, running errands, buying groceries, setting up my new room, etc. And then it was time for orientation:

Day 1: Listen to a bunch of introductions and overviews, plus a two-hour seminar on personal finance that was utterly useless to non-trad students. Well, any non-trad student with their act together, that is. It covered things like building credit, automatic investing, loan repayment strategies, etc. I was bored. So was the 40-some woman sitting next to me. But it probably would have been moderately useful to a non-non-trad. (That’s just more fun than saying “traditional.”)
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Aug 22, 2010 | 2 | School Daze

Vet School Nightmare #2

Seriously? Why am I having these dreams? I haven’t even started yet!

Last night’s dream featured a multiple choice test, along with people interrupting me every ten seconds to make comments under their breath or to ask a question. Consequently, I couldn’t ever fully read through a question, and had to keep starting each question over. I had about twenty questions left in the last five minutes…grr!

Unfortunately, this scenario isn’t too far from reality. I discovered something very interesting about myself at the beginning of last school year, when I was taking my first Mammalian Physiology exam. There were so many people in the room, and my grasp on the material was fairly tenuous, and I was really nervous… Every. Little. Thing. Distracted me. A person moving their leg, a pencil hitting the table, the clock–any of these would fully remove my attention from the test, and then I would have to start reading through the question all over again.
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Aug 14, 2010 | 3 | Miscellany

The first assignment, and I’m already failing…

T minus three days to vet school (well, vet school orientation), and already I am having trouble with the first assignment.

The assignment is this: “Please bring an object, small enough to be held in your hand, which represents or symbolizes for you the meaning of veterinary medicine in your life.”

First, some background. CSU’s vet school orientation lasts one week, and three days/two nights of that week are spent at Pingree Park, the school’s mountain campus. So, sorta like summer camp. Pingree is supposed to be a bonding experience for the incoming class, and everyone I’ve talked to either loved it… or hated it.
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Aug 13, 2010 | 0 | School Daze