Ahh yes, another rant about the absolute disaster of the year 2020 was. As an extrovert, the newfound massive amounts of alone time was definitely an adjustment for me, and my dog and I are now officially codependent. It took weeks into my winter break at home for me to even muster up the energy to reflect on my fall semester.
One thing I took from 2020 is a newfound perspective of gratitude. I know I am an incredibly lucky girl. COVID-19 brought new perspectives of gratitude in my life as I watched other people my age struggle as somewhat new to a workforce plagued by a standstill economy. I’m pursuing my dream at an elite veterinary college in a field that has only seen profit growth during the economic turmoil of COVID-19. Although academic stresses existed, I found a way to (sometimes) be grateful for the mild normalcy I was lucky to experience. Although lectures were online, I still had my labs in person and got face time with my professors. Yes, misery loves company, but through that company, I was still able to enjoy my vet school community, even at six feet apart. Things I once took for granted I now value because I am one of few who has some sense of “normal” during the pandemic.
My goal for 2021 is to take this perspective and fall back in love with vet school and medicine again. The fall semester was an incredibly tough one for me. I didn’t have the luxury to drive home to see family or friends and due to the pandemic (and an extremely demanding academic load), I couldn’t fly to see them. As a life long extrovert, I have relied on my support system to lift me up from school and distract me from it when I’m needing the break. It was extremely difficult for me to find separation from school this semester, especially when most days my school work was feet away from where I slept. I definitely fell into patterns and lost intentionality in what I did. With that, I sometimes even felt resentful of something I worked so hard to be doing. Even at work, part of the reason I love being a vet tech is my interactions with pet owners, but the personal conversations over the phone just don’t feel as intentional. It is notoriously a tough semester, and I was not very kind to myself somedays. Like, I just finished a semester during a GLOBAL PANDEMIC. I think I can forgive myself for often struggling with productivity during the prolonged crisis that was the state of the world.
I’m still figuring it out, but I’m setting out in 2021 to be intentional with my actions and love what I do.
