It seems the majority of my vet school career so far has fallen into a pattern of studying for exams, taking a few weeks off, and then studying for finals. This semester has been no different- we are now 6 weeks (!!) in, and I have written 3 final exams and a midterm. The way this semester is set up, with three 5 week modules of classes, I will essentially be writing at least one exam every week from here on out until about the last week in March, just in time to study for final exams! The bright side to this of course is that we are staring down the barrel at the end of our classroom learning (as I am sure I have mentioned before.) I always enjoy learning, but I admit that sitting in a classroom is getting old. I have now spent a significant portion of my life tethered to a desk cramming information into my brain, and I find I am getting restless of doing so. I just keep telling myself as I sit down to study for yet another exam that it is one less exam left to go- in fact, as a tally I currently have 16 exams left to write, plus the biggest exam of my academic career next December!
This semester has proven to be my busiest yet, as I surmised it might. I expected that surgery would keep me busy and it has- we have reading assignments, quizzes, and we also have patients to care for. So far, thanks to a snowstorm, our first surgery was postponed until next week. After that, we have another lab that is not a true surgery, and then we begin 6 weeks of live patient surgeries. It's still looming ahead of me, daunting, but I am also excited to start doing surgery as it makes my career seem that much more like a reality. On top of surgery, we have assignments for other classes, exams to study for, and occasional group work to do as well. Overall, my last few weekends have been spent doing school work, and even my evenings after school is spent with my nose in a book or doing something school related. Prior to this semester, trying to get myself to focus and study during the week was a challenge. I often did not study during my evenings in the middle of the week unless I had an exam to prep for. Now, I have been studying almost continuously. For that reason, I have been anticipating this break more than many other breaks as a chance to take a breather from the books.
The most exciting development is the arrival of my rotation schedule. It's a pretty safe bet that most people (myself included) have a little rearranging to do with their rotations. I am actually pretty happy with the way my schedule shook out, however I did not end up getting a rotation in dermatology, neurology, or ophthalmology, all of which I feel will be beneficial down the road for me. I am going to have 3 weeks worth of time with which to do external rotations, and my current hope is to fill one week with some surgical work (spays and neuters), and take the other two weeks and try to work in at least one of those specialities I mentioned above. It is very exciting to have my schedule handed in front of me. There is one rotation I am perhaps most nervous about and didn't necessarily want, but I do think it will be good preparation for the NAVLE and I do think I will be able to learn and become more confident with my skill set so I plan to keep it. I do have a lot of on-call rotations scheduled- in fact there are a couple of months where my back to back rotations are all on call- so it is quite likely I will be difficult to reach during those times. However, I am excited about it and ready to take on the challenge of fourth year. I am nervous as well, because I don't know exactly what to expect heading in to the clinic work, and worried that my skills will be lacking or insufficient, or my knowledge base won't be enough to be competent at this level- but I also am sure that I am not alone in feeling these things, and that the majority of people do just fine in their fourth year.
This weekend on Sunday we are looking at yet another winter storm. Winter was very quiet to start- as it was in most places in the East, with very little to no snow on the ground at Christmas. However, it more than made up for it here. Since Jan 27th, we have seen over 6 feet of snow fall. We have about 3-4 feet on the ground right now- the drifting makes it difficult to tell exactly how much. We escaped a winter storm here today, however so far it does not look like we will be lucky on Sunday. The forecast is calling for another foot and a half of snow! I am not sure where we will put it all if we do get that much. Many of the streets in the downtown area are severely narrowed, parking lots have lost many spaces to the mounds of snow that have nowhere else to go. The sidewalks are mostly clear but the snow banks on either side are towering. So, another foot of snow will make clearing quite difficult. This also does not account for the fact that it will be a blizzard with strong winds. I am quite fortunate that the last two big storms we had, each with strong winds, did not knock out my power for more than a minute, so hopefully the same holds for Sunday's storm. All that said I still love winter, I still get excited when I see a big snowfall predicted and I still go outside and play (though sometimes my playing in the snow is me shoveling).
I will update the blog again soon, perhaps once I do my first surgery here- or when I have my rotations scheduled for good. In the meantime, Happy Friday the 13!
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