This is a dysfunctional relationship

I hate vet school.

Let me clarify: I actually love that I'm in vet school. I just hate it at the same time. There are plenty of reasons why I love it but tonight I feel like listing the things that I hate about it. Humor me.

1) I rarely get to meet new people

I think this is why I love going to conferences so much. They're the only times when I get to meet new, interesting people. Even so, they're all still vet-oriented. I've always been the type of person to have an eclectic group of friends. School is so all consuming that I don't have that luxury anymore.

2) There are many things that I want to do that now I can't.

Example: live in Israel. I think that when I graduated college I chose a definitive path for my life without even knowing it. Although I always wanted to be in vet school there's a part of me that will always want to travel, learn new cultures, try different things, and just be free. Now I am going to be $120K in debt after four years and I feel bound up. I might never be able to just pick up my life and change it on a whim again. Its been a dream of mine to go live in Israel, learn to speak Hebrew and really connect with my heritage there. I don't know if that will happen now. Or if it does, it won't be as easy as it would have been if I had done it right after college.

3) My class sucks.

This is rather specific to the people in my class but I hate it nonetheless. Its like pulling teeth to get them to do anything. We have this negativity that surrounds us and sometimes it just drags me down.

4) My school hates students.

Sounds strange huh? Well, recently we've been facing some pretty serious budget cuts. And guess what's been being sacrificed? No, not the brand new, fancy hospital that they're about to start building which is going to take away almost all of our parking (another way they show how much they love us). No, what's suffering is our education. Faculty members are leaving and they can't hire new ones to replace them. We're no longer allowed to print notes in the library at will (you practically need a note from the Governor for the library ladies to let you print a power point lecture). The shelter program is a fraction of what it used to be (many students were not even allowed to request this rotation because its so small now). Students have to act as wards techs on the weekends because the school can't afford to pay people to do it. They claim that its part of our "learning". Yeah, because I'm going to be doing so much cage-cleaning and dog-walking when I'm a doctor.

5) Someone stole soap from our bathroom today.

Who does that?? The girls in my class have always bought our own soap from Bath and Body Works for our bathroom for the past 2 years. Recently they've been getting stolen. Seriously, who does that?

6) Open House

I believe I discussed this in my previous post. I still hate it.

7) Its Friday night and I spent it at Starbucks reading dermatology notes.

Know why? Because I've been so busy this week with random school related crap that I had to use my Friday night to catch up. Fine . . . I guess that's my fault for being too "involved" but still, it makes me cranky.

Give me about a week. I'm sure I'll be posting a list of things I love about vet school.

You know, they never told us during orientation that we were about to go on an emotional roller coaster. I've dated my fair share of guys but my relationship with Vet School is by far and away the most dysfunctional one.

If I didn't secretly love it so much I'd have to break up with it.

I know, I suck.

Okay, so maybe its been 2 months since my last post. My bad. I think there are a few reasons I haven't been posting. 1) I didn't think life during classes was that interesting, 2) I didn't think anyone was really reading this, and 3) I'd rather just forget about most of what's been going on than re-live it on here.

Maybe that was a little dramatic.

Classes. Not much to say about them. They've been relatively easy and our schedule has been ridiculously light. For example, I had the last two weeks off because I didn't have to take any of the classes being offered. And before that I was only taking two classes, both of which had take-home exams. Although, this week, it seems we have a more normal class schedule. I'm actually taking two classes now (oh the horror) and I start a third tomorrow. And yes, these classes all have real exams. Too bad my cat isn't as good at helping me study as he thinks he is.

And yet, I'm busier than I've ever been.

This whole being class president thing has really started to suck this semester. It started with pizza sales. Our class sells pizza every Friday to the school as a fundraiser. Which means I have to be the one to order the pizza, send out the emails, and beg my classmates to volunteer to sell it. I sold the pizza myself the first few weeks while I was getting everything settled. And once the ridiculous bitching and moaning were over I managed to get enough people to sign up for pizza sales to cover the semester. And so far its been going fairly well. But then, there's still Open House to deal with.

Oh yes, the Dreaded Open House.

See, this event isn't the worst thing in the world. Its one day where we set up some displays, invite some rescue groups to come show their dogs, have some demonstrations and have an all around good time. The problem is that the administration has put our open house entirely on the students. The planning of the event is a huge headache. The worst part is getting our class involved. See, "They" tell us that it is required for our class to participate. But there is no consequence or incentive for students to help out. Nothing happens to them if they just choose to not help. And since our class had to do Open House our freshman year (don't even ask about that one, its a long story) no one wants to do it again this year. The end result is that its like pulling teeth to get people to participate and that we don't even have enough people volunteering to run booths so that all the departments are represented. Its pretty much the biggest pain in the ass ever.

As if that wasn't enough I'm also working on a retrospective study this semester, "adopted" one of our blood donor mares (although, thats not much, we just go out and brush her once a week), I might start working a couple of hours a week taking care of a research dog, and am taking care of any other random class crap going on (which is more than you would think).

Its not all work and no play though.

I went to NAVC again this year. That was, as usual, awesome. Plus, I got a scholarship so I got to fly out to Las Vegas for the Western Veterinary Conference. That was also an awesome conference. I'm not going to lie, there are a lot of stories that have come from that trip. But you know what they say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas ;-).

Actually, while I was out in Vegas I made a connection with Dr. Ettinger (if you are reading this and are a vet student you probably know who this is, I call him the "all-knowing god of small animal internal medicine") and now I'm going to go out and do an externship at his practice. I'm so excited! Of course, that makes 4 externships I'm doing now over the summer. I'm not sure I'll ever actually be home. Luckily, my parents are moving to Atlanta this spring so they'll be close enough that I can bring my cats to them to watch. I'm not sure I've ever talked about my cats on here, that'll have to be another post.