Almost there!

First day of spring!!  Unfortunately I don't think that Mother Nature likes PEI because we are in the midst of a snowstorm, and the wind is blowing so hard I can't see the end of my short driveway from my window!  The bonus to this late season snowstorm is of course a snow day.  The second one for the year!  I don't think I had that many snow days in all of my undergrad combined (I may have had 1 in Maine, and 1 at VTC... maybe.)  In reality the whole snow day tends to bite you in the rear end later on because we still have to make up the classes that we missed somewhere, which inevitably means longer days at some point.  Thankfully, Wednesday is a short day anyways, and so there aren't many classes we are trying to squeeze in.  The added benefit to today's snow day:  We happen to have a test tomorrow so we now get a little bit of extra time to study.  

Overall midterm season came and went without a lot of fanfare for me.  It was busy, I studied a lot and worked hard and in the end my grades came back good.  Compared to the first semester midterm where I thought I was going to fail out of vet school and never be a vet- this was a much easier passing, and ultimately a testament to what I have done to change my study habits (mainly, do more studying.)   In first semester I studied but focused the bulk of my learning efforts to to right before the exam and ultimately it didn't allow me enough time to fully understand some concepts.  This midterm season I have been working daily to learn the material, and trying to keep an organized pattern so I can keep up as best as possible.  Keeping up in vet school is kind of an imaginary concept- there simply are not enough hours in the day to study all the material learned every day in each class, before the next class.  But I do try to make sure by weeks end that I am at least caught up in the big core classes, and mainly the smaller ones.  It probably also helps that I really enjoy most of the classes this semester so I don't mind giving up my life to study them.  

I think my favorite class this semester is General Pathology.  I love learning the lesions, and why things appear as they do.  It is a lot of work to remember the pathways and mechanisms of disease but every class is like a lightbulb of why something I have seen in practice or experienced with my own dogs happened, and allows me to better understand it.  I love Friday lab time where we go down to the Gross Pathology Lab and look at all kinds of specimens with a variety of lesions and disease processes.  I used to think I enjoyed the microscopic aspect more, but I realize now I could look at Gross specimens for a long time and not be bored!  The body is amazing in what it does when presented with problems- truly!  

In all it is hard to believe that classes will be done for the semester in a mere 42 days!  We have about 4 weeks of classes left before we head into a 2 week span of finals.  The end of the first year of vet school is in sight!  I am going to be going home for the summer somewhere around the first weekend in May, and I look forward to having a breather from always having a nose in the books.  In this remaining 4 weeks before finals I have a test tomorrow, a test on Monday, and a lab quiz next Thursday.  After that I will be prepping for my Clinical Orientation final which has a practical part and a written component and takes place the 2nd of April.  I have 1 week after that and before finals where no tests intervene, though I will be prepping for my finals that will coming right up as well.  I am not sure where the time has gone this year-- it seems like just the other day my dad was dropping me off here to begin this adventure and I was trying to navigate a new environment.  Now, I know the island better, have made good friends at school, and am anxious to keep my education on the path to becoming a Vet.  

I doubt I will have more blog posts in the next few weeks as I mentioned I have some tests coming up, then finals- but once school breaks for the summer I will likely post again.  In the interim, Happy First Day of Spring!!