Wet Cleanup on Aisle 5

Excuses, excuses

It seems really, really hard to make a massive career change in one’s mid-thirties.  That’s because it is really, really easy to come up with 101 excuses not to change, not because it’s actually hard!  I mean, it’s not like I had to scale Everest or anything, I just had to apply to go back to school.

Here are some of the excuses that stood in between me and vet school, and here are the ways I got past these excuses.

1) I’m too old.

I’ll be done with vet school when I’m forty.  My handsome other half will be well into his fifties.  It seems a little silly to be making a career change at this point, plus incurring a lot of debt.  The thing that I found most helpful in getting around the age thing was advice from a woman who’d become a vet in her early forties (and who is now a well-known holistic vet).  She said, “You can be forty and a vet, or you can be plain old forty.”

2) It costs too much, and I have a mortgage to pay.

This was, and is, the most daunting thing about this process.  I still freak out about it sometimes.  So far, after two years of prerequisites/grad school, I still have my house and still manage to feed myself and my cats.  The student loans are enough to cover my basic expenses.  I will graduate with a boatload of debt, but I calculated my life expectancy and amortized the debt over the years I supposedly have left.  It’s definitely worth $3500 a year to me to be a vet.

3) I hated undergrad…why should this be any better?

I hated undergrad because I was clinically depressed most the time, so this really isn’t a fair comparison.  But I also hated it because I had no direction, no goal.  Becoming a vet is a pretty clear goal.  I’ve since found that for me, being a non-trad student is AWESOME.  I am so much more engaged than I ever was during my undergrad years, and now I’m really glad that I’m older than my peers.  I know I will get much more out of vet school than I would have at 25.  My professors are going to hate me, because I’m going to be that student that’s always saying, “But what about…?” 

4) I don’t want to do all those prerequisites…that will take another two years at least!  The clock is ticking!  And I am too old for undergraduate classes!

If you’ve been out of school for any appreciable length of time, easing back in by taking undergrad courses is a good, good thing.  I gained a lot of confidence by working hard and excelling in classes that were challenging, but not overwhelming.  That, and I have learned a ton of things that will be relevant background for my veterinary studies.  Prerequisites are there for a reason, and even though I was annoyed to have to take them, in retrospect I’m glad I did.

5) What if being a vet limits my possibilities too much?  What if I decide I don’t want to be a vet?

Going to vet school does not mean you have to be a veterinarian.  It opens the door for you to work in public health, in pet products, in pet food, in zoos, in research, in management, in education…  Plus, going to vet school puts the word “doctor” in front of your name, which is never, ever going to limit your possibilities.  Unless you want to be a fry cook.

6) But how will I know it’s right for me?  What if I make the wrong choice?  I need a sign!

It would sure be a heck of a lot easier if God came down, knocked on the door, and told you to go back to school so that you could save the lives of thousands of animals and have a meaningful and purposeful life.  We all want to wake up one morning and know, with certainty, what to do with our lives.

In reality, deciding to quit one’s steady job to go back to school, incur a boatload of debt, and become a vet is not the kind of decision one makes overnight.  It is a long, long process of examining yourself, your priorities, and your life.

For me, it took about five years to get from having a nagging feeling that I ought to be doing something different with my life to the point where I actually applied to go back to school.  When I finally applied to school, I wasn’t 100% sure that’s what I wanted.  But I was 92.3% sure.

If you are considering veterinary medicine as a career, the #1 piece of advice I have for you is to get as much veterinary experience as you possibly can.  Volunteer at a vet clinic, a shelter, a farm, anything.  Get your hands dirty.  Work with animals as much as possible, and work with practicing vets as much as possible.  Once I actually started working for a vet, my mental career anguish went away pretty quickly.  Once I had a clear vision of myself as a vet, a little organic chemistry wasn’t going to stand in my way. 

Also, ask yourself, “What’s the worst that could happen?”  Chances are, you are considering vet school because you don’t like where you are now.  Say you quit your current job, go back to school for a year, and decide you don’t like it.  What’s the worst that could happen?  You end up with a year’s worth of school debt and get another job, right?  At least you got out of that job you hated!  And who knows what you’ll discover along the way.

We all want the path to be clear before we are willing to set out on the path.  We want to know we are headed in the right direction.  But you will never be headed in the right direction if you aren’t moving at all…

In summary, it’s hard, yes.  But it is easier than you think.  I leave you with bumper sticker wisdom: No excuses, just choices.