Summer time and the living is not easy!

I started work at the small animal hospital this week. It was where I got some of my first true veterinary experience as a high school intern, so it's nice to come back and see a lot of familiar people. But I had forgotten just how long the days are (10 hours!) and how tough it is on your body. Fortunately I have a four day weekend this weekend with Memorial Day and then another day off so I have time to catch up on all of the things that I've gotten behind on! Leaving the house at 6:45am and returning home around 9pm isn't exactly conducive to productivity. I have a pretty big to-do list for the next couple of days.

Summer to do.

Graduation was lovely and my family and boyfriend ended up surprising me afterward and taking me to the Melting Pot, one of my favorite restaurants (who doesn't love fondue?!) This means that I have seven pieces of chicken to cook and eat by myself but it was worth it.

Anyway, I need a place to consolidate my to-do list for this summer in preparation for vet school. So today's post is going to be just that.

Have blood pulled for rabies titer - done
Pick up results
Have PPH write letter confirming I did receive my vaccines there
Request transcripts be sent - done
Mail rent deposit for housing - done
Mail AVMA membership (done), titer results, vaccine letter to school
Schedule dental, rabies vaccine and cert. of health for Ella
Sign paperwork to end lease on apartment by July 21 - done
Switch cell phone plans
Donate books/clothes to Goodwill - done; will do more
Book Danny's return flight
Pack and leave night of August 19th!

The end and the beginning.

So I survived finals and passed my classes! Not that I was expecting to bomb any, but it's still comforting. Graduation is tomorrow, work at the small animal hospital starts Monday and August couldn't seem farther away. But I know the time will fly quickly once I become busy. In fact, after this weekend I'm allowed to start focusing on vet school related things (and the list is nearly endless!) since I'm done with finals and will be all graduated.

Today will be spent grocery shopping and cleaning the apartment. I'm going to have my parents, sister and boyfriend over after graduation for dinner since I'm pretty sure all of the restaurants will be full with new graduates and their families. I'm planning for a little appetizer, lemon chicken breasts, rice, salad, green beans if they're fresh and a cute little dessert of some sort. I love to cook so hopefully this will be a nice change of pace for everyone!

Finals

All quiet on the blogging front for the next seven days as I tackle my last finals as an undergraduate. I have statistics, biochemistry, (weekend), insects, advanced crops and soils in that order. Then I have next Thursday off and I graduate on Friday. Even though it seems far off now I know finals week will fly by. So it's off to studying I go. Hopefully I can report back as a successful graduate!

Horse racing

Every year from as early as I can remember, I've watched the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont. My grandfather was a horseracing fan (taping over my baptism video with a running of the Preakness - whoops!) and my mother after him. II grew up in a family that loved the sport.

In April of 2008, my mom and I went to Arkansas on my high school spring break. It was a follow-up trip made after visiting Kentucky a year before and watching the horses run at Keeneland. Oaklawn Park was another fabled track and we were determined to see it! There was the first time I saw Eight Belles run: a magnificent mare. I clicked pictures eagerly from my place on the outside rail as they broke from the gate.

When Eight Belles broke down in the Derby that year, I was devastated. I felt a personal connection to her; I wasn't just another spectator who knew nothing about the horses and wanted the long-shot filly to pull through. As I watched her collapse on the track, I knew I had to understand this racing world better. I researched it all for a project and came away with a terrible sense of being torn. The sport I loved so dearly - running physically undeveloped horses, pounding on their fragile joints, recklessly inbreeding. The list went on. I knew that as someone who cared about animals I couldn't support these rituals. But I couldn't keep myself away from the seemingly exuberant air of the track.

Later, I went to a local track one day on one of their big race days. As we watched the horses turn the bend in one of the less important races, scorching down the stretch, I noticed one of them had something flapping around their feet. It only took me a second - and much before everyone else - to realize that it was her feet flapping around her ankles. Both fetlocks had completely blown out and still she struggled to run. It was absolutely heart-breaking. The vets rushed out, errected a screen and euthanized her immediately. It wasn't the euthanization that bothered me, of course, but the way that it all seemed so routine. I read the paper covering the event the next day and saw no mention of Little Harbor's breakdown. As though it hadn't even happened.

So when I watch the Kentucky Derby now, it's with my heart in my throat. I want those horses to have a safe trip. I want them to move on to those lush breeding barns where they can - for the first time in their lives - be horses.

Close to the finish line.

Graduation is fast approaching. Classes end Tuesday, finals end the Wednesday after that. Essentially two more weeks until I'm finished and my brain is just starting to realize it! I think it clicked when I picked up my graduation robes on Wednesday. I don't have much motivation to slog through these last couple of days of class, save the fact that I need to do well in two for vet school. I'm not really worried about them, though, because I know I'll pass.

So I've begun to consider what I'll miss about undergrad. The rainy days when my pants get soaked to my ankles walking to class? The sweltering summer days I survived when living in the air conditioning-less dorms? The huge stretch of winter break that nearly makes one want to go back to school? The crime of this corrupted, sorry city? No, none of that. I'll do my best to remember the homecoming parades I was a part of. The semester I developed an interest in teaching through being a TA. The time I got front row seats to a big rivals basketball game. The sense of absolute belonging I feel every day that I set foot on campus. Those will be the things I miss.

But most of all I'm going to miss those damn ferrets. I can't say I'm not excited to have been called up by my old boss to be offered a job paying so much better. But I can't say I won't miss them digging out all their food after I just filled the feeder, sleeping in a giant pile where only feet, tails and whiskers can be distinguished and escaping to scamper across the floor. I really will miss them most of all.

Career choice

I was reading an online forum where high schoolers with a pre-health focus go to ask questions. One of the threads was asking members what kind of doctor they want to be and why. It was amusing to read their responses (and I mean that in the least condescending way possible) because of where I once was and where I am now. There's a long and boring story about my path to veterinary medicine, but it wasn't unlike those high schoolers in the forum. I had it all planned out. I guess what strikes me, here today, is that even within my career path of choice, I've changed my mind about as many times as you can. I wanted to do equine, I wanted to do large animal, I considered zoo and wildlife. Lab animal was sort of this unexplored area that I didn't think I'd like. In fact, I bristled inwardly when people told me that I'd change my mind.

But I did. Guess where I'm pointed? That's right! Lab animal.

Lab animal vets, and vets who work in public health and research and that sort of thing, aren't your typical vets. It's almost like they have their own little sub-field away from the others because they aren't exactly practicing vets in the way that the public thinks of a vet. And while every type of veterinarian is needed in his or her own way, I feel like lab animal medicine is really the place for me. I don't want the "traditional" experience of treating patients and working with clients. I want to be on the edge of things, learning and helping people to learn through animals. I want to teach, too, when I've learned enough to pass on. And it's just so funny to sit here and reflect back on who I was and what I was thinking when I was the age of those forum-goers. And I'm sure, in four years when I'm finishing my DVM I'll reflect back and probably smile too. I just don't know what I'll be smiling at, just yet.

Productivity!

There isn't much in the world that makes me feel as good as having a productive day. I spent the day cleaning the apartment and stocking the fridge. Overall a good weekend. Next week is my last full week of classes as an undergraduate, which is both glorious and terrifying. I've told myself that I won't start worrying over vet school-related stuff until after I graduate but that date creeps closer and closer. Let's hope I can have a productive summer, too.