Finding the joy

Many moons ago at orientation (ok so not THAT long ago, but some day's it feels like it) the dean told us her words of wisdom..."Find the Joy". Basically, she told us that this was going to be one of the hardest things we were ever going to do, there would be days when it seemed impossible, and days when we just wanted to stay in bed and not face four hours of generally mind numbing lectures. "Find the Joy" she said, it's what gets you out of bed in the morning. So far, I have found this to be excellent advice. Though, I have to admit, I haven't really had too much trouble finding the joy so far. Yes, I have days that I just want to jet out early and watch Oprah (mainly days that include Histology) and days that sleeping in and getting the lectures from someone else later seems like the best idea ever...but I don't. I trudge through when I really just want to be on the couch, because I know that my goal is closer than it has ever been before. So in short, here is a list of my "joy's" so far:

1. stupid games we play to stay awake during lecture-this usually includes counting the "filler word" a professor resorts to (ie um, ah, and Dr. Histology's favorite "essentially") So far the high number reached in one lecture 84, in 50 minutes, that's pretty sad. And yes, I am listening to the lectures--but sometimes you have to come up with alternate ways to stay interested.

2. Free food- vet school is all about lunch meetings and dinner meetings which usually include some lecture, or lecture series about a given topic--and always include free food. Quite often I will go to a given meeting because I am interested in the topic, like nutrition, or colic, or cattle just in general. Other times I attend based on the food they are serving regardless of the topic. Many times I don't care--but who can turn down free food.

3. New friends-though it feels like longer, we have only been at this 6 weeks. Now is the time friendships start to really form, we are not just being polite anymore. I love making connections with new people, I love learning from new people. I am starting to really find my niche and I have good friends, that as an added bonus are really smart and we study quite well together.

4. Tuesday's- Though they are our longest day of the week, I LOVE Tuesdays. This is the only day we are generally allowed live animals. We have physiology lab which includes adorable bloodhounds that failed out of the prison program (aww, they're the rejects) they are precious and sweet, and they have a pretty good deal living the sweet life at the vet school. (No experiments are done on them, they are just used to teach us how to draw blood and place catheters and such.) Mostly, though I love Tuesday afternoons. This is the day we get to leave campus (they pretty much hold us prisoner there) and go to a ranch or the teaching hospital, or the prison farm and hone our skills on live animals. This week's lesson, running a hydraulic squeeze chute and cattle physical exams. I came home so giddy I woke Husband up to tell him my story. He reacted like most of you probably are right now, he could not understand why playing with cows was such a big deal...it is ok, it just is.

5. Medical students- just in general they crack me up. Not sure why, they are a stressed out group of folks, and they generally make me laugh.

6. My professors- they are perhaps the smartest people I have ever met. I usually am in awe of their knowledge, skills and the shear fact that they are soooo the people I want to become. And, that they genuinely care...a far cry from my professors in undergrad. These veterinarians really really want us to understand, to do well in our courses, and to love our profession as much as they do.

7. Realizing that I am here: many days it just hits me, I'll be sitting in the library, or daydreaming in a particularly boring lecture and it hits me...I am a vet student. Not a hopeful, not an applicant, an actual vet student. That right there is perhaps where I find the most joy. No matter how hard things get, or how much I don't wanna get out of bed at 5:30, I am so incredibly glad I got in, and there are about 500 other people that would give anything to be in my seat. It pretty much keeps this amazing opportunity in perspective for me.

So, that's pretty much it, that's how I find my joy. The little things, the big ones, the variance from the mundane that makes the crappy days better. Keeping it in perspective keeps those crappy days few and far between.

Oh, and yes I will post a full write up of the ostrich rotation soon--it requires it's own post. We finish on Monday, I'll get a post in shortly after that.