As I approach the end of the semester of my third-year, I can definitely say I am ready for it to be over. It’s been a hard semester to say the least. On top of the school work, life has just been hitting extremely hard and non-stop. I recently lost a very close friend to me who was a pharmacy resident and had her own blogging platform as well. Her love for helping others and sharing her knowledge has inspired me to write this post in her honor. As I was reading one of her blogs, she shared similar difficulties in pharmacy school that we experience in vet school. It’s exhausting and draining but at the end of the day it’s important to talk about the “big wins.” She defined a big win as “something you did that made a difference or a positive thing that happened to you.” Her big wins consisted of things like teaching nursing students how insulin works or discharging a 15-year-old patient after the patient spent a month in the hospital.
I think it’s important to implement documenting or talking about the big wins in each of our lives. We tend to get so hung up on all the things we’re doing wrong instead of highlighting the positives or the big wins. Therefore, I’m listing my big wins of the semester:
- Reaching out for help—this is the one semester I’ve experienced the most adversity and I made sure to reach out for help from a psychologist, family, friends, and classmates.
- Having my off-campus block opportunities accepted for fourth-year! I’m going to Malawi and South Africa!!!
- Every interaction I have with prospective or current vet students through my blog or social media platforms. Knowing that I’m making a difference and inspiring a future generation of veterinarians is truly incredible.
- Completing all my ICU duties and clinical skills tasks.
- Spending time with friends and traveling out of the state.
- Completing a canine spay and neuter in our junior surgery lab.
- Volunteering at the humane society to spay and neuter animals.
- Successfully intubating a living patient and monitoring the anesthesia.
- Passing a class that I was originally failing for most of the semester.
Being in vet school is hard. There’s no denying it. It’s important to focus on the things that are positively impacting our days and share them. I find that majority of vet students (including myself) are quick to harp on the one thing that went wrong rather than the twenty that went right.
I’d love to hear about your big wins! Share them in the comments below! 😊
Kristi
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