I fail at blogging.

Alright, so apparently this blog is living up to its name. In an effort to start posting more without worrying about trying to "catch up" I will try to just start up again with posts and then add in some information from everything before now randomly throughout (enough to catch anyone up who is interested, HOPEFULLY).

UPDATE!

So I realize I haven't updated this blog since basically the first week of the semester. I've definitely been meaning to because I knew it would come to this moment where now I really want to update but I don't even know where to start. So much has happened. Sometimes I wish I were a better writer because then maybe I could just talk about everything right now in a single post and it would all flow and sound really nice. Instead, since I am not that great of a writer, I will do my best to give a fairly thorough (and hopefully not boring) update. I may split it into multiple posts depending on how it goes.

So I just want to start by saying (and I'm sure I may reiterate this point a few times throughout): VET SCHOOL IS AWESOME! =D

So where to start? Classes? Sure. Classes are awesome. For the first time in my life I feel like I am actually learning something that will be useful to what I want to do. I can actually see how everything we learn relates and applies to the field. It's so cool. This comes especially in handy when classes get hard - which they definitely do. Don't get my wrong, just because I love my classes and love vet school does not mean they are not hard. They are extremely hard. I have never studied more for anything in my life. And honestly? I could still easily study more than I do (and do better because of it). I feel like I slack off a little bit compared to some classmates. It's just not in my nature to kill myself studying. Sometimes I wish I could force myself to study more but I can't (and deep down I know it is better that way - it's what keeps me sane). That being said, I do definitely spend a lot of time studying but I enjoy it a lot more than I ever did in undergrad because I can understand why I need to know it. 

So right now I think if I had to rank my classes (purely by subject matter and not by the professors or the time of day of the class or  by who I work with during the class) from most favorite to least favorite they would be:

Physiology, Anatomy, TAU (teaching animal unit), Bacteriology, Evidence Based Medicine, Histology, Careers in Vet Medicine. Physiology is just so interesting - learning how everything works. Anatomy is super cool too since there's so much to learn and when I think about everything I already know now compared to just a few months ago it's crazy. And, of course, TAU is amazing since we get to work with live animals every week. Not only that, but they're also animals that I have no prior experience with so it's a pretty amazing experience each time. For example, my group's most recent TAU was the swine one. At first, when we were in the pig barn and they were just explaining to us what we were going to have to do (which was snare the pigs and draw blood and give an IM injection) I was finally convinced this was going to be a TAU that I would not enjoy. These pigs were making awful noises and we had earplugs in because they were so loud and as this woman was explaining everything to us all I could hear was the end of certain things and I swear it felt like I just kept hearing her saying "and then you'll have a dead pig" without hearing whatever warning she gave before that. That freaked me out. Then, as I stood there watching the first pair go I got even more freaked out because it took them forever to snare their pig and then equally as long to draw the blood and inject the saline. Not to mention, those awful noises the pigs were making? They got even worse once the pigs started to get snared. But then it was my turn and it was almost magical. I got into the pen and snared my pig on my first try (basically) and without any trouble. Then I had no trouble holding the pig still while my partner did her part (take blood and do the injection) other than I had another pig nibbling on my boots the whole time. Also, I had no trouble releasing my pig. Then, my partner also had no trouble snaring her pig. And I, with the assistance of the professor, was able to so easily get blood. It was my best blood draw so far this semester. It was awesome. It went so smoothly. I felt like a pig whisperer. So even a TAU, where I momentarily thought it was going to go horribly, ended up being amazing. Enough about classes and TAU. 

What else? Oh, my professors. My professors are ALL really cool. I like them all. Sure, I can think of some negatives about them but I do like each and every one of them so far, on an individual basis. And overall. I definitely like them as an entirety too. It's really nice to have professors that I like. I can't speak for my whole class, since I know some of my classmates do and don't like certain professors. But I definitely like them and they all seem like they genuinely care about teaching us. 

The last thing I feel like talking about/mentioning briefly for now is: my classmates. My class is awesome! Sure, there is definitely a group of people that I have bonded more with than others but overall I don't think there is a single person in my class that I do not like. There are some people who I still don't know so well so I can't really have much of an opinion of them yet. But yeah, overall everyone seems really cool. And I definitely love that there are at least some that I bonded a lot with and get along super well with because they make classes and school so much fun. My class is definitely a fun group of people. And with that being said, I am going to end this post for now. I definitely need to write about my first large animal hospital experience sometime soon though because that's a story worth sharing (teaser: it involved a miniature donkey and it was awesome). 

Late night anatomy

So it's 2 a.m. right now and I just got home from the anatomy lab. Late nights in the anatomy lab are so much fun. Admittedly, sometimes having too much fun in anatomy lab can be distracting and take away from my productivity level but it's still more effective and efficient for me to spend my time in lab than at home (where I get distracted by other things like River....and food....and TV.....and outside....). Anyway, I promise I will try to at some point in the near future (hopefully) give a longer and more informative update about vet school. I can't promise it will be a well organized thought/post, though.

Countdown to my first anatomy exam: 3 days!

Still behind....

So I still feel kind of (but not badly) behind in Anatomy but that's mainly because yesterday evening (after classes) I went and picked up my bookshelves that had finally gotten in AND assembled them. Assembling them took me about 3 hours.....and then add in the time it took me to make dinner, etc. so that I basically didn't study at all last night and believe it or not, that's enough to get you behind in vet school. But on the upside, now I have somewhere to put my books!


First anatomy exam countdown: 6 days!

Not knowing what to expect...

Not knowing what to expect for the first anatomy exam is killing me. So last week was my first week in vet school. Technically, it was only half a week so I'm actually considering tomorrow the start of my ACTUAL first week in vet school. Either way though, I have completed 3 full days of vet school and so far I enjoy tremendously. Unfortunately, I'm freaking out on the inside not because I'm super stressed about how much  we need to know for anatomy (which is a lot) but more because I just don't know what to expect. Basically, I don't know enough about what to expect to be any more descriptive than just "a lot" when describing what we need to know. Of what we've gone over so far in class, I know we'll need to know the bones of the thoracic limb, each part of each bone, the muscles, the muscle attachments, the muscle actions, the joints, but where does it end? Do we need to know the fascia? Do we need to know (for the first exam) the muscle attachments that are not on the thoracic limb (like the sternebrae ones)? When it comes to the muscle actions, will it be sufficient to know just whether it extends or flexes that particular joint or will we have to know all the other minor actions as well? My assumption (both a safe, and probably accurate assumption) is that we will need to know everything in as much detail as possible. And that's okay with me - I truly do enjoy learning about this stuff. I just wish I knew what to expect for the test. The anticipation of the first anatomy exam (in a week and a half) is almost too much to handle.


With that being said, I honestly do feel behind. I feel like I probably know about 75% of what I should know if I were on a good pace. Being behind isn't really stressing me out though. I think I just feel behind because it's been a WHOLE 2 DAYS since our last "official" anatomy lab and I definitely think our scheduled anatomy labs help me a lot. I used the words "official" and "scheduled" to describe the anatomy labs that I was referring to because there have also been a few times already that I have gone to the anatomy lab during off hours just to review/study. Tomorrow is Monday though, which means it's time for 4 (possibly more depending how I spend my weekend(s)) straight days of anatomy lab this week and every week following. So after tomorrow I'm hoping to feel on track again.


I started this post with no particular ideas or organization in mind and it has led me to this....

"It's gonna be awesome...."

So the title of this post is a quote from a classmate and it actually was not related to vet school BUT the conversation was hilarious so it is definitely quote-worthy and in this case, I feel this way about vet school so it applies....

Anyway, yesterday was my last day of a 3 day Orientation and a 1/2 day for the White Coat Ceremony. Orientation was long and quite boring at times and in my opinion, not particularly informative about anything we didn't already know BUT I'm not really complaining because it was fun meeting my classmates and everything. The White Coat Ceremony was pretty awkward, in my opinion, so that was a lot of fun too :p

I have to go pick up my books and supplies and ID card today around 2:30-3 but other than that today is our "day off" before classes start tomorrow. So yeah, classes start tomorrow and I'm pretty sure it's gonna be awesome.

Right now I am updating this blog just for the sake of "updating". I would write more but I really don't feel much like "writing" right now. 

Early mornings start soon

So this summer I have naturally been waking up around 9:30am every morning. To many of my college friends, this would be considered getting up early but to many others I have had the pleasure of "sleeping in" most of the summer. On Thursday, however, I will basically be starting a 8-5 job (plus all the extra hours that will go into studying). My first day of Orientation is on Thursday from 8am until 5:15pm. The second day of Orientation (Friday) is from 7:30am until 3:20pm and then return for dinner from 5:30pm until 7:30. We then have our White Coat Ceremony on Saturday from 2pm until 5pm. Finally, the last day of Orientation is Monday from 7:30am until 5pm. Then classes (from 8:05am until 4:30pm most days, I think) start that Wednesday! I'm pretty excited to start classes. As for Orientation, I am both excited and dreading it. Orientation is SO long and a lot of it is just person after person talking to us about topic after topic of this giant load of information. Sure, that's what classes will be like but at least that information will be more interesting. Based on our Orientation schedule, I wish some of the stuff they have scheduled for us was optional since I don't feel like it's all things that I necessarily need to know right now. Nevertheless, I am super excited to meet ALL of my classmates and do all the cheesy ice-breaker games that I'm sure we'll play. Also, I'm really looking forward to meeting all the faculty.


Anyway, time to get ready for a movie at the $1.50 theater tonight with some of my awesome classmates! :)