Hi there; Birdie here!
It's 5:00, I just got out of my second two-hour session of Therio with Third-Years, and I'm still at school. We didn't have class on Wednesday (more on that later), so I guess the second lecture set today was to make up for that. Luckily, today's lectures were the last of the repro part of physiology--no more classes with third years until I'm a third year! As for why I'm still at school, it's (obviously) not to study, as evidenced by my very-much-not-studying as I write my blog post. I'm staying for Dr. DeBowes' leadership workshop in an hour. He gave a talk at lunch, and he's the first VBMA speaker I've actually really liked. His talk was all about improving communication/compliance because "good medicine is good business." Especially since my undergrad thesis was on client communication and compliance, he was right up my alley. I'm pretty excited about tonight.
The workshop is continuing tomorrow, too, as a day-long thing. And Sunday is a Spay Day, which will get me 1) a SCAVMA point so I can stay in good standing and stay in clubs and 2) handling experience with cats. That's also pretty much all day (though it is until 3 instead of 5), so I hope I can manage to do all of that and also manage to study for histology and (hopefully) start on anatomy. Luckily cell bio/histo is the class I rocked my last test in, so I've got a little bit of buffer if I don't get to study as much as I'd like. Also, the exam isn't on Monday (for once)--it's not until Wednesday for the written, Thursday for the lab.
Speaking of exams, I also got back both last week's Anatomy test and the physio test we took on Tuesday. I'm still not entirely sure about the grading scale (though I know a 91-point-something is a B, since that's what I have for PBL with the last couple of grades at 0 since they aren't up yet). I didn't do as well as I would have liked on either of them, but between getting points back/questions thrown out on physio and potentially getting back points on Anatomy, I think I actually did pretty well. Definitely not so well that I'm not going to stress about the next exam (and the next...and the next), but well enough that I'm not freaking out about those.
Remember how I said I didn't have classes on Wednesday? That's because it was Phi Zeta Day, a research emphasis day. There were two speakers--one in academia and one in the human pharmaceutical industry--which we had to attend as part of our Intro to Vet Med course. In between, there were poster presentations of students who did research (as well as some faculty, and PhD students), and some of them got awards. I asked a bunch of the students about the Merial Summer Scholars program since I'm thinking about doing it next summer. It was kind of annoying when they took the opportunity to sell the experience as a Great Opportunity(tm). I know it is a valuable experience, that's why I'm interested, I want to find out more about specifics that can help me decide what to do with it! I'm not sure if I want to stay at LSU or go somewhere else (a large reason I didn't go to Missouri for vet school was so I would be free to leave the state for more than a week or two). I'm kind of unsure whether it's worth applying, too...apparently clinical projects are a lot harder to get funded than biomedical basic research, and I think I'd rather do clinical. And I'm sure it will be very competitive (have I mentioned how my class likes applying for everything? It took two days of the bookstore being closed for them to interview all the applicants). Between those two, I'm worried I'll get really invested in an idea and then not get it--or get it, but only for something I don't really want to do. Honestly, I really don't want to think about next summer at this point...but for this application I probably kind of have to.
I also participated in a necropsy wet lab hosted by path club last night. Only 4 of us showed up, and all first years. First the head doctor did a demonstration. It was really hard to watch...between my lab coat in the heat, the smell, and looking at the dog's blood and viscera (especially with the knowledge that I had to dissect fresh tissue today), I started feeling really uncomfortable and didn't want to do that. I asked permission and stepped out and was getting all ready to leave when the resident (I think?) met me in the hall to tell me how This Is an Important Skill and You'll Need To Do This In Fourth Year And Probably Your Career. He also told me it's important to equine practitioners because I'd mentioned that I knew how to use the disposable plastic booties after my experience at an equine hospital. I'm not actually going into equine. I've spent time in an exotics clinic, too, and I'm DEFINITELY not doing exotics. I calmly explained that I will do it, just not today when it's optional...though his talk made me think he meant even the wetlab wasn't optional. I have NEVER hated vet school as much as I did in that moment. But after that I would basically be questioning myself forever about whether I shouldn't be in vet school and am paying 10k a semester just to blow it all when I fail out of my fourth year rotations. I came back without the lab coat and had no problems whatsoever (though I did have to go back for my coat before I started my own necropsy). In fact, the doctor I was working with kept telling me how well I was doing--that he was surprised it was my first necropsy and that I "must be doing well in anatomy." I got up to taking off the dog's head but didn't want to fight with the saw enough to get it's brain out, but I did everything else, including getting a bone marrow sample. I'm still not sure it was worth it or whether it was a better use of my time than doing a run/walk with a couple more of my classmates, but anyway, it's done.
Speaking of running, I went on Sunday last weekend without my usual running partner. I still met up with the rest of the usual group (they missed her actually). I don't know whether it was the weather change (chillier than usual and heavy, humid about-to-storm weather) or my lack of music (because I didn't want my ipod to get wet if it started raining) or what, but I don't feel like I did as well as I have been doing. Without my usual partner-in-slowness, though, I did not cross the finish line alone. In fact, every one of the others (3 people) turned around at some point to come back for me so that we would all get back together. I felt kind of bad for slowing them down, but it also felt kind of nice--like I was part of a team. For our Tuesday run, my best partner was back, and with new running shoes! We finished the 5k in ~36 minutes--better than our previous times. I hope I can keep improving, even though I'm probably too busy to go run this weekend.
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