I know I've gone back and forth over what the heck to do with this blog after vet school and I think my final conclusion is to let it go. Vet school was a huge part of my life but it was also a very separate part of my life. I'm not sure I can easily dovetail "real life" with a blog about vet school. That sounds so silly and over-thought but it's true.

I can't say I won't ever come back - who knows? - but for now, this is good-bye. Thanks for reading :)

At long last, I can call myself a veterinarian.

I wonder if the title was worth the investment, both emotionally and financially, but there's no use crying over spilled milk/water under the bridge/etc. I can say that I am currently happier than I have been in a long time - not because I have those coveted letters after my name, but because I'm with my husband, near to my family and friends (well, those I had before school, at least), our first house is so close to being ours and I have a job that I hope will be fulfilling. While vet school - both getting there and getting through - have been a huge part of my life thus far, I don't want it to define me. I want it to be a part of me, a building block, but not who I am all on it's own.

When we came back from Canada, my parents were still out of town, so Danny and I had a day to ourselves on Monday. I can't even describe how blissful it was - we got to sleep in because no one was clunking around upstairs, we didn't have to talk to other people about the trip, the day, etc. and when we came home, we did a few house chores and were able to watch TV! (This never happens because the TV is in the family room, which is essentially open to the kitchen/dining area in the house and my parents are always there talking until they go to bed, or asking about what we're watching or whatever, so we can never really watch TV.) I never thought watching an episode of Hoarders: Buried Alive would be so wonderful! I love my parents dearly, and I am so, so grateful that they are allowing us to stay with them until we get the house sorted out, but...

I suppose that's what this all really comes down to: I'm ready to begin my life in earnest. During undergrad, I lived away from my parents, but Danny and I didn't live together. During vet school, I was either in another country entirely or we were living together under someone else's roof. We've never had our own place to do our own thing and when we get little glimpses of it, like this past Monday, it's tantalizing. Knowing that we have a place and just have to get through these next five or six weeks is an agonizing wait, but I am so excited.

Saturday is The Day: the White Coat Ceremony.

Veterinary schools all handle white coats differently, although all "coating" is done ceremoniously, as the image of the white coat signifies entry into the profession. Some schools have white coat for new students, others before clinical rotations begin. However, my school gives out light blue coats for all four years (I tell people it's done that way so everyone knows who knows what they're doing and who doesn't) and then has a ceremony at the end of it all to finally get your white coat. While symbolic, I'm mostly just excited to get to see my friends after six months apart and have one last amazing party with them. Bring out the dresses and the heels and the make up!

The weekend after white coat, Danny and I are flying to Colorado to attend his grandmother's funeral. It will be wonderful to go out there (it is my favorite place in the world!) and see his family, who we haven't seen since our wedding, but I will really miss his grandmother. She was so kind and welcoming to me - had us over to dinner nearly every Sunday while they were living in this area, sent the most HILARIOUS Christmas cards ever (like, tears-streaming-down-your-face-with-laughter-level hilarious) and was the first to send me a congratulatory card for passing my NAVLE. Truly a wonderful lady that will be dearly missed. (Unfortunately, the funeral service is on our wedding anniversary, which is a bummer, but I'm hoping we can go for a hike nearby sometime while we're there, or do a little something together.)

And last but not least, the house is moving along really well. We had a small issue crop up but the owners have been great with responding to us and making the improvements we request. I cannot WAIT until we have a place of our own!

I'm currently in a weird in-between time, a no man's land of vet school: there aren't any more lectures to attend, rotations are all finished and graded (I passed them all, woo!) but graduation isn't until May 9th. So we have three weeks of built in vacation - great in principle, but tough in application.

Many of my classmates are going on an actual vacation, somewhere warm, fun or both. Since we're buying this house, we don't want to go shell out anything for a trip just now, even for a long weekend. I'm sure our hands will be more than full with the house when it comes time, but until then it's work for him and keeping busy at home for me. And there are plenty of little things to do: submit paperwork for my state license, go through things to prepare for an upcoming yard sale, communicating with our relator and attending inspections/etc. and of course various household chores. I do allow myself to loaf - I got three books at the library yesterday! - and I know I need to let myself rest up before work begins (June 1!) but I'm starting to feel antsy already and I still have five weeks until I start work! Ack.

Today is my last day of veterinary school. Three years in the classroom, under the fluorescent lights, cramming pages upon pages into my brain for the multitude of tests. I'm a little sad that I'm not at the school with my classmates to feel that undercurrent of excitement all day long, and that I didn't get to participate in our class's "prank" where the fourth years decorate the school elaborately on the last day of classes every year. In a way, though, I'm glad that I've been apart from my classmates these last six months because (hopefully) it makes our final goodbyes less abrupt. Really though, I know I'll be crying on graduation day because these 62 people have been a family to me this whole time. Away from my parents, sister and husband, they were the people to make me laugh and hear me vent, the only people who could truly empathize. I will miss them all dearly.


A long time ago, I wrote three things that I wanted to do when I got out of vet school: volunteer, run and learn photography. And I think now is the time! With three weeks until graduation and another month until work starts, I'm considering starting out by finding a place to volunteer. Hopefully by building them into my schedule, I can keep it up even when I start to work.

And last but not least, Danny and I have put an offer in on a house! I'm hopeful that it all works out smoothly and we can be in by the middle of June :)

I've been writing and re-writing this post for a while because I can't decide what route to take to convey my thoughts. In a nutshell: I accepted a job offer this weekend.

I am excited, nervous, happy and relieved. For the first time since applying to residency programs, I'm not wondering where we might end up, how we might get ourselves there, how we will set up our new life. We know where I will work and already knowing where Danny will work as he's kept his job, we now know where we can plan to live. So we've climbed back into the house-hunting saddle. For the first time in our relationship, we can find a place together. After living with my parents these last five months, and after three and a half years apart before that, we are so ready!

Here's to the upcoming next chapter of life :)

Almost a month since I've stuck my head in here and not too much has changed. An update, in bullet format:

• The job hunt continues. I have three interviews lined up (all small animal practice) and hope that proves enough to land me something.
• My current rotation is...a little rough. I dread going in the mornings. I'm learning a lot, no doubt, but it isn't how I had hoped or envisioned spending my last six weeks of vet school. 
• Danny and I are now house hunting for our first place. Exciting, yes, but stressful even moreso. 

Unfortunately not much else to say. Here's to hoping I can have a more positive update soon!

I've come back to this blog a few times since last posting but find myself with little to say in the way of an update. I suppose my writer's block is mostly hesitance at sharing too much of my plans - I was pretty sharing with my residency plans (not just here, but with my friends and family) and that was a bust. I guess I just want my next step to be nailed down before I start blabbering about it. On the other hand, I don't want the blog to idle and maybe there's someone out there in the interwebz that can glean something helpful from my ramblings.

So after no match, I applied to two of the three programs that were still open. One program told me they had found someone (I expect an applicant they had interviewed but not ranked) and the second program invited me for a phone interview (happening today).

I also interviewed with a lab at my (lab animal) external rotation. Without going into too much detail, they do some very intense work and are a demanding lab. I think it would be a fantastic experience to participate in but they want someone for a few years at least and the hours are unforgiving, especially when we start to think about children. So my finger is still in that pie, but likely not for much longer.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I applied to small animal practice jobs. I would love to do exotics only but I would settle for a dog and cat shop that also sees exotics and work my way up from there. The realization that I could be happy doing something that I had decided strongly against for so long was kind of weird to say the least, but I need to be honest with myself. Maybe lab animal isn't the path I was meant to take. I've been regarding my lack of match as wake up call - stop and look around, rethink things and such. Which sounds very hippie-esque, I know (I think my mother wants to shake me) but I'm going with my gut on this one.

Cut to the chase: today was match day and I didn't match anywhere. I'm bummed out of course, but I'm looking ahead to what I need to do next. So many considerations have entered my mind, some discarded and some retained. I'm trying hard not to think that I've disappointed anyone and all of my awesome friends and family have been, well....awesome :)

Danny and I are going out to dinner tonight to discuss. We shall see.

I passed my NAVLE! I have also officially changed my last name to my husband's (almost two years after getting married, whoops). I now have two case reports to work on (one for my clinical conference, one for an award I'd like to be considered for) and twelve weeks left of vet school, all of which will be at external sites (mostly lab animal but also an exotics only practice).

Feeling pretty good :)

So I've since finished Dances With Wolves and The Dressmaker, discarded Lincoln after a valiant effort and begun A Separate Country.

Dances With Wolves was a good book. It had a Pocohontas feel to it: military white man (in this case, Lieutenant John Dunbar) learns the ways of the Native Americans (in this case, Comanche), falls in love with Native American girl (Christine/Stands with a Fist, who is actually white herself but adopted by the Comanche) and observes the destructive powers of white people from his new vantage point as an adopted Native American.

Nothing novel in itself, but the story flowed well, the main character was dynamic and while the expected things happened, it was still a powerful message from the past about acceptance of other people and cultures and just how destructive people can be. We look at that part as something of our past: we would never slaughter all those buffalo now! We would never hack down all those trees without reason! But really, we are doing that all over the world, just in different media - species are made extinct by hunters, development of rural land is unashamed, etc. It makes you sad to think that we really haven't learned anything after all that time. Sobering.

Anyway, I'll see how I feel about writing more book reviews. I'll obviously exceed my goal of two for the month - easily done with nothing else to do right now. Life will kick in soon with my external rotations beginning January 26th. I interviewed with a third residency program last Friday and ranked the three that interviewed me yesterday morning. My list is finalized and while I have one program that I like particularly well, I'll be happy to be paired with any of them. Results February 9th!

As promised, my first book review: Postcards, by Annie Proulx.

I should begin by saying I hate Annie Proulx. I first read The Shipping News as a young teenager; it was one of the very few books I ever didn't finish. The most I remember of it was how achingly depressing it was. Not that everything had to be rainbows and unicorns, but there's something about an incessantly down-hearted book that I just couldn't wrestle with anymore.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. My mother is talking about Proulx. My mother loves Proulx's writing, her stories. She had finished Postcards and I, being hungry for a book after finishing a pile of library books, decided I would revisit this author. Give her another chance so to speak.

Postcards was just as relentlessly sad as I remember The Shipping News to be. It follows the life of one Loyal Blood, a farm boy who ditches home after murdering his girlfriend in the woods while having sex (?!). The stories of his mother, brother and sister (and, indirectly, his father) are all interspersed. Loyal, perhaps suffering PTSD from his crime, cannot get close to women without having some strange, asthmatic-like response slash panic attack and instead, he forms relationships with various people in his travels - essentially all men he finds work with along the way - but they never last as his life continues to unravel at the cruel hand of fate.

That one person is so continually shat upon by the universe is depressing. That he continues to write postcards to his family, ever assuming they're all still happily together and living life on the farm, is heartbreaking. The book ends with Loyal dying - alone, homeless and broken. Sheesh.

So needless to say, my dislike of Proulx was only confirmed. I didn't much care for her literary style; though I tolerate even the vaguest of ramblings by some authors, she was consistently hazy, leading you almost blindly through the story. Just not my cup of tea. I also never actually liked any of the characters, never really connected with any of them. To me, with characters being a drawing point of a particular book or author, that's tough to overcome.

Unfortunately, would not recommend.

Next on the list (I'm nearly done, whoops): Dances With Wolves.

I've been reading so much about New Year's resolutions, and it always brings out the angst in me. On the one hand, I love setting goals for myself. I like to plan, to organize, to break things down to the nitty gritty. On the other hand, I've learned that you really cannot plan for life. It does what it will and the best you can do it be adaptable enough to roll with the punches and make your own successes. (Even that sentence was so angsty-teen-vibe, ugh.) Anyway, I remembered that in 2013, I made a new resolution each month and had some good success with that until I ran out of ideas for resolutions. I considered doing that again because it was the most successful I've been with NYR in my memory, ever. So here we are.

For January, I've decided to read at least two books and write a little review of them on the blog. (Not because anyone cares what I have to say about them, but because it will help me be more accountable to have written that review.) I started the first book on New Year's Day: Postcards by Annie Proulx. Thoughts to come.

In other life news, I got some good news from one of my two residency interviewers. I'm waiting to hear back from the second place, which I expect sometime this week. Our rank lists are due January 16th! As soon as I know where I'll end up, I can enter crazy planning mode.

I am also (finally) embarking on changing my last name after getting married in May 2013. To be honest, I feel a little twinge of sadness at the thought of adding a new last name that I hadn't expected. But I'll be going ahead with it anyway, and I know my husband will certainly be excited :)

Anyway, that's all for me for now. Stay tuned for the book review!

Only ten days since last posting - I feel pretty accomplished with my attentiveness to the blog ;)

Anyway, Christmas was a nice time. My sister and her boyfriend stayed the night at my parents and we stayed up late wrapping gifts and talking. We had a variety of stuff for breakfast and then commenced opening presents. My aunt and uncle came over around lunch time and we all talked for a while. Danny had to work the next day, which was a bummer, but got the early shift so he was home in the early afternoon. After taking a nap, we got dinner and went to the Mormon Temple to see their huge Christmas light display. We drove around neighborhoods after that, looking at all of the lights. A great date :)

I've managed to be somewhat productive since then, getting little errands and chores done here and there. I've also been plenty lazy, reading three library books among other things. I don't have much in the way of plans for NYE yet, or for my birthday in a few weeks, but not having the looming date of having to leave takes a lot of pressure off my mind.

Sorry for falling off the face of the earth (again)! Not much has been happening around here: got a lot of Christmas shopping done - most of it online, I'm ashamed to say but it's just so darn easy - and now I'm awaiting package delivery. Went to see the national Christmas tree with Danny like we do every year, which was fun. Stopped by my work Christmas party and got some gifts, ate some food and caught up with everyone. Danny had to go into work this morning for a few hours but should be home for lunch and maybe more shopping. Planning for dinner with my sister, her boyfriend, Danny and my parents tonight. Getting caught up on football and Chipotle (duh).

Two residency interviews for me (hoping on one more in particular), and February/Match Day can't come soon enough! Really looking forward to starting my career as a vet, getting our own place, all that jazz. Also planning our next date night (Zoo Lights at the National Zoo, I think...) and just being genuinely happy that I don't have to go back to the Great White North! Although I do miss my friends a lot :(

NAVLE scores come back mid-January, I start my externals at the end of January, and I have some good library books I'm working through. Life is good :)

Since posting last, a lot has happened.

First and foremost, I picked Danny up from the airport last Thursday (Thanksgiving). I am so happy to be reunited with him and not have the end of winter break (or summer break, or whatever) looming over us. We are finally together permanently and it is a glorious feeling.

Anyway, I still had to go to my farm services rotation on Friday, but after that I came home, we packed up and hit the road Saturday morning for the journey home. Per usual, we stopped over in Portland, Maine and had dinner at Chipotle. Chipotle is always delicious, but the experience was extra-special as I hadn't been there in six months. Then we went and wandered around Cabella's for a bit and then turned in. Sunday morning we left decently early and made good time until about an hour or so away from home, where we hit pretty bad returning-from-Thanksgiving-weekend traffic. Ugh. But we made it home!

This past week has been spent doing my final studying for the NAVLE. I got 100% of the way through Zuku's study mode and about 50% of the way through their test mode before calling it quits and just browsing my notes all day yesterday. I got up bright and early this morning, made my way to the testing center and even found a parking garage very close by, which I'd been worrying about. Got checked in and started my exam...and just kept going! I forced myself to take a break half-way through (there were six blocks, 65mins each, though I got them done in about 45mins) but other than that, I just kept plowing through. Overall I felt like it was a fairly reasonable exam; for me, the first few sections were a lot easier than the last three sections. There were definitely questions that I had to outright guess on, and some where I'd whittled it down to two reasonable options (at least in my opinion) and had to just pick one, that sort of thing. But overall I feel like I probably passed, which is all that matters!

In other news, I received two preliminary interview invitations with residency programs!! Those will be happening in the coming weeks and while I'm pretty nervous and don't exactly know what to expect, I'm excited to be given the opportunity.

So everything is going pretty well for me. I feel as though with NAVLE and my clinical conference behind me, I had a pretty big weight off my shoulders. I still have some paperwork to do, the two interviews to prepare for, and various other non-vet related stuff to do, but I'm looking forward to the chance to do some fun stuff, prepare for the holidays and catch up with everyone back home :)

My schedule lately has been wake up, go on farm calls, have some lunch, go on farm calls, go home, study for NAVLE, talk to Danny and go to bed. Out of all of my internal rotations, I think my current rotation (farm services) has been the most difficult. It's physically challenging (I'm short and cow butts are tall, cows are big and not always the smartest creatures on the earth and flail around dangerously on the reg and retracting uteruses is tough), intellectually challenging (there are approximately five thousand and forty-seven ways to get a cow ready to breed; also, please remember all of reproduction) and we're outside in the frigid arctic temperatures of a premature Canadian winter. That all being said, I'm learning a lot, loving the people and generally having a good time.


The rest of my life is kind of meh right now. NAVLE studying is boring yet necessary. I need to finalize my clinical conference paper to submit this weekend. I should start getting my apartment ready to be packed up because, oh yeah, I'M MOVING HOME NEXT WEEKEND :) I've also been getting the cold shoulder from residency programs, panicking about my future and worrying that I'll never get to do lab animal medicine. But that's kind of another story all together and I know I need to be a little more patient. So I guess in a few weeks time I'll either have a post about having an interview or I'll be further into my identity crisis. Stay tuned.

I like to do blog make overs at the changing of the seasons; as my little corner of Canada got a dusting of snow last night, I figured it was finally time to surrender to the idea that winter is indeed coming.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what I want to do when I get home for good in 11(!!!) days. It feels like I have so much I need to do for vet-related stuff - finalizing my last two externals, taking boards, hopefully attending a residency interview or two, etc - but I want to do some stuff that I'm excited out, unrelated to school or my career. So here's my breakdown:

1) Food. My dad is a phenomenal cook, and I look forward to getting back into my parents' kitchen after six months of very, very limited kitchen supplies. They have a ton of room, a huge gas range, lots of useful gadgets and a dishwasher! I can't wait to make all kinds of things, from pecan pie to mashed potatoes to huge salads. I also want to go to all of the restaurants that I've been missing all this time: Chipotle, ChikFilA, Fuddruckers, any and all Mexican food places, Roti, Buca Di Beppo, etc etc etc.

2) Friends. I have so many wonderful friends back home that I haven't seen in six months! I have a couple of holiday parties I'm planning to attend, but I also just want to go catch up with these people.

3) Activities. Every year, my mom, sister and I go and paint Christmas ornaments. We've been doing it for years and whenever Danny and I get our own place, I know I'll take mine with me. Danny and I also go to the National Christmas Tree every year - it's just blocks from where he works and it's nice to walk downtown with him even if it's usually cold. I don't know what we'll do if we move away :( But I'm also planning some fun other activities, like going to see certain movies, maybe a hockey game, a couple of museums, etc.

After so long away from home, the last week or two before leaving always seems to drag for me. It doesn't help that this is the last time I'll be away from my husband for the rest of our lives! I get more and more antsy to start moving on - find a job/residency, find a place to live, start digging in for the long haul...all that fun stuff. Running on my last reserves of patience, but I just have to keep going!

This week was an epidemiology rotation and I can say with full confidence that it has been my least favorite rotation by a very long shot. I suppose I should mention that math isn't one of my favorite things, I resent busy work at this stage in my academic career and long drawn out Powerpoint presentations that talk far too much about little details of the regulatory government are not the best medium for keeping my attention; perhaps this rotation was destined to fail from the beginning. You would think disease outbreak and detective work and all that jazz should be exciting and engaging but in this context...no. So suffice to say I'm glad to put this one in the books.

Also this week, I presented my clinical conference case on Wednesday! Also glad to have it behind me, although I think the presentation went well despite the er, unpolished handling of certain questions afterward. I still have to polish my paper for the end of November and submit it for a grade, but my case advisor is encouraging me to publish it too, so I'll have some extra coordinating to do. Exciting, though!

Last but certainly not least, my match application is due on Sunday - ack. I had all of my materials save letters of recommendation in for a while and waiting on other people to contribute their pieces is nerve-wracking and terrible, per usual. It's a bit like applying to vet school, and I have faith that all will be sent in on time, but until I know that it's in on time for sure, I'm going to stress. Which is why I asked them to submit by today, so I don't have to fret all weekend about whether or not all my stuff is in. Instead, I will fret about possible upcoming preliminary phone interviews and whether or not I'll miss a call while I'm out at farms next week for my next rotation.

We finished early today, so I'm sitting at home in my sweatpants on the couch while it rains outside, working on my NAVLE prep. That's in less than a month, but I've made decent progress on my prep materials and I'm feeling...okay. Not confident but not panicked - yet.

I promise I haven't fallen off the blogging wagon, I've just been busy doing much of the same thing, with some variation on the theme depending on what rotation I'm on.

Last week was ruminant nutrition, where myself and three very cow-oriented people did some cow stuff in the mornings (palpations mainly, but I got to: give some IM injections, watch some foot trimming, give an epidural, chase some heifers, palpate a Jersey cow [which is my size cow!], amputate a tail, ultrasound [preg check] a crapload of sheep, dehorn some calves and the like) and nutrition stuff in the afternoons. I took a year of production animal nutrition in undergrad, so I knew I would understand and enjoy the subject material. Also, good practice for my three weeks on farm services ahead.

This week I've been on lab animal and exotics. If you've read even just one post on this blog, you know how I feel about this rotation, and it's lived up to my wildest hopes and dreams. We've been taking care of the wildlife patients (pigeons, a barred owl and a bald eagle) which includes radiographs and handling (a first for me when it comes to raptors) as well as: blood collection from turtles, ferrets, mice and snakes (I also managed a pericardiocentesis in the snake?!), some amazing field trips to a falconry and a snake breeder and lots of other amazing things that are slipping my mind right now because I'm exhausted from all of the crazy fun stuff we've been up to. Never a dull moment.

I've also been working away at my Match application. I got my materials submitted and am just waiting on two more letters of recommendation to come through (I have a bad feeling they're going to go down to the wire, which serves me right for being a procrastinator myself!) I'm excited to get everything submitted and start hopefully hearing back from places for an interview. Danny and I made our list of 10 programs, and looked into the areas that they're in for ease of job for him, income, taxes, etc. but I think getting to see the facilities and actually experience the area ourselves will be a big factor in my rank order. I was all nervous about where we'd end up but now that I'm actually applying, I realize that the most important thing is that I get to live with my husband and we get to be a normal couple for the first time in a very, very long time. I certainly hope I find a program with awesome facilities, amazing people and great opportunities too, though!

The other things on my plate include my clinical conference - my presentation is next Wednesday (eek!) and my final paper is due at the end of November before I head out. Match applications are due November 9 and I should start to hear back from programs shortly thereafter. Then home for the NAVLE, hopefully some interviews, holiday time with my family, catching up with old friends and externals. Match Day is February 9(?) and at that point, Danny and I can start looking into details on moving to our new place.

Crazy times ahead, but I'm excited :)