It’s early in the morning. The wind outside is howling as I pull onto the ferry, just a few miles from my house. Before long, it is in motion and I am moving across the dark waters of Lake Champlain. As the waves slowly rock the boat, a billion different thoughts fly through my head.
While it was a good break, it’s now time to head back down to school for another semester. As always, leaving family and friends at home is difficult to do, but it is a necessary sacrifice to pursue veterinary medicine. Knowing that it will be four or more months before I can come back home and see everyone is not the best thought, but it has become much easier as time has passed.
Although most people probably wouldn’t like doing an 800-mile drive by themselves, I know there is a big reward at the end whenever I do it. Either I am returning home to my family, or headed back to school to reunite with my friends and start hitting the books once again. This ferry ride has become synonymous with my vet school experience, marking both the beginning and the end of semester’s worth of hard work.
As per usual, the drive was not as smooth as I would have hoped weatherwise. In the past, I’ve hit a massive monsoon, driven through unplowed interstate during a snowstorm, and this time ended the journey by going through heavy rain for 250 or so miles. But after the long day’s drive, I’m finally back in Virginia. Now it’s time to get back to work.
