When I planned out my clinical year, I had a few rotations that I *needed* to plan out. I wanted a large animal surgery and a large animal medicine block before I left for all of my equine externships; I wanted diagnostic imaging and ancillary (microbiology, pathology, necropsy) before I took the NAVLE. But beyond that, I had no real preferences for the remainder of my blocks. Purdue requires that we put in preferences for our vacation block, so I arbitrarily put it Block 14, in the spring.
I hit the ground running for clinical year. Back-to-back patient care blocks in the large animal hospital, followed by a boatload of externships, back to take the NAVLE, and then back on patient care through and over the holidays. Anesthesia, back to patient care and the start of “baby season”, and then, finally – vacation.
With everything going on in the hospital, I didn’t have a ton of time to coordinate what all I wanted to get done on my vacation, aside from the general cleaning and catching up on sleep. As a result, a lot of my plans ended up being incredibly last minute.
I was able to go home to Ohio for about a week and see a lot of family and some good friends while I was there. I breezed through to my alma mater to speak to the pre-veterinary kids there (and was roped into an impromptu Q&A about the chapter of equine lameness that the students had just read about), as well as a few of my science professors that aided in my research and taught some of my most favorite classes. I also managed to see another former employer while I was there, and my former roommate who has remained one of my best friends.
I continued down through Ohio, stayed with that roommate overnight and continued into Kentucky to look for barns to board my horse at when I move for my internship.
By the time I got back to Indiana, I was drained from all the social interaction over the last week and a half. So the last week of vacation was for me. Lots of sleeping and naps with my dog and the cats, lots of time with my mare, cleaning up the house, finishing some creative projects, and trying my hardest to stay away from the vet school.
I’m too nosy to stay completely out of it, especially with my roommate still on clinics during my vacation, so I find myself perusing the hospital system, but I try not to get too involved. The whole point of the vacation block is exactly that – to get away from the hospital. I know many classmates who have planned actual vacations or get-aways with significant others or their family, spent time outdoors, etc.
So with just a bit of time left on vacation, I’m working to get things organized – from ordering pet food, to working on my taxes, submitting paperwork for my licensure, and spring cleaning the house, but balancing all the ‘real-life’ things I have to do with extra dog cuddles, daytime naps, and long hacks with my mare.
