Yesterday I took my last midterm exam...ever. We still have block finals and then full-semester finals but having even a smaller milestone behind me makes everything feel even more real. 61 days from now, I will start clinical rotations. 237 days from now I will get to go home permanently. 431 days from now I will graduate from vet school. Hopefully sometime between now and then, I will finish out my last diadactic semester with strong grades, will get to see Danny, will find a new place to live, will apply and get a spot in a good residency and will somehow find the self-confidence to be a veterinarian.

I can't say I'll miss the routine grind of classes, gorging and purging for exams or the missing of home. I'm excited to start clinics if only to get that much closer to finishing school; I'm also terrified that I will be utterly worthless but a part of me knows I have at least some level of competency. More than anything, I can't wait for the day I get my DVM and get to go home and start my "real life".

Because that's what vet school has felt like: a strange hiatus from the real world. I feel like everything and everyone outside of my little vet school bubble is rushing by, busy doing things that normal people do. Not that I want to be another sheep and check off all the boxes on the list of What You Should Do In Life, but I can't wait for Friday nights when I just come home, watch TV with my husband and eat carry out Chinese. When I can take my sister out to lunch because she's had a rough week. When I can go out with friends whenever I want. When no one has to ask, "When do you go back?"

I guess it's all becoming a distant reality and I can almost taste it. I'm excited for some mind-blowingly awesome externals I've managed to line up and I know I'm going to spend the summer preparing my application for residency. It's so far away, but look how quickly three years have gone by already. It's just one foot in front of the other now.