A light at the end of the tunnel...

...well, at least at the end of the lecture learning tunnel! Eight years of college have already flown by, and in just 4 months we'll be learning in clinics. It definitely makes me nervous but I'm excited for the change.

Since I didn't have time to post much last semester, let me summarize it in one word: HELL. Or what I imagine hell would be like...I had truly never been more stressed out in my entire life. Thanks to weekly surgeries and Monday/Friday exams, I had zero rest or relaxation. No weekends off, no evenings off. It was really rough but by the grace of God I made it through, and I really did learn a lot so at least there's that! Nobody said it'd be easy...

In other news, I thought I'd post a list of our last round of classes since that seems to be a tradition of mine. They're mostly food animal/equine focused this semester. We have surgery 2 (large animal), medicine 2 and 3 (one small animal, one equine), practice management/finance, nutrition, clinical pharmacology, advanced exotic animal medicine, public health, and surgical skills. Sounds a little intense but so far I've had way more free time than last semester (granted we are only 2 weeks in). We have Thursday/Friday exams, which means I can use Friday evenings to refresh my brain and recharge. We also only had one equine castration for the semester, which I've already completed. It was pretty exciting and was on a client owned horse! We just have a few more afternoon labs - an advanced equine lab this week, small animal ophtho and a few food animal handling labs later in the semester. It's nice to touch a live animal every now and then :)

Our first surgery exam is coming up this Thursday, the day after my birthday of course. As if that isn't lame enough, Kansas is VERY sweet and has planned a low of 5 degrees for me on my birthday... -_- Bah! Can't wait till spring gets here! It's actually slightly above 50 today though, so time to head out for a walk with Rhyley!

Oh and before I forget - please check out my flickr account by clicking this link! I've had it for 4 years now and always forget to mention it on here. I've recently had some really great opportunities to shoot photos of wildlife in Florida, so check it out if you're interested :)

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

I'm back in Florida so I finally have some time for an update!

This semester went great and I learned more than I ever thought I could! I was so afraid of second year because everyone always talks about how horrible it is, but I didn't find it to be that terrible...next semester is supposed to be worse though. And don't get me wrong, I had to sacrifice a lot and work extremely hard (non-stop...literally), but nothing worth having comes easy. And just like the quote in the subject line says, if you love what you're doing, you will be successful. So true! I love this profession wholeheartedly. Even though it's not easy, it really is enjoyable. And there is nothing like seeing hard work pay off!

My favorite course this semester was pharmacology. I found it interesting how much drugs can affect the body, and how one drug can literally save a life! I enjoyed first year a lot but this semester was much more interesting overall, and everything has started to tie together. There were many instances where I used information I learned in one class to formulate test answers in another class (saved my butt a few times!) Parasitology was really interesting, but by the end of the semester it got a little dry. I have a harder time learning about food animal medicine, and that's all we were learning for a while. I love cows, but I don't ever see myself working with them!

2012 has been a really amazing year. I learned a lot, made new friends, lived in a new place for the summer, and experienced a lot of firsts! Now I get to spend the rest of year relaxing and catching up with friends and family. I really need to get back into an exercise routine too - hopefully I can solidify it as a habit over the next 4 weeks. And in the beginning of next year, I'll be doing my week long mentorship at UAH and attending the NAVC conference! Fun things to come :)

^ true life!