Happy New (School) Year
This is it! What the DVM Class of 2018 has been waiting for: our official transition to the second year of vet school. On Monday, we started our first day of classes as 2VMs. We are no longer newbies–well, to vet school, anyway! Still, even after a full year of the veterinary curriculum, we are major newbies to vet medicine. There is so much left to learn in just a short three more years. This semester alone, we’ve got pharmacology, pathology, nutrition, medical Spanish, parasitology, and the various labs associated with those courses. What a list! Though a little daunting, I can’t wait to dive into these subjects (and more) to start gaining a better understanding of clinical veterinary medicine, and, coincidentally, kiss the anatomy lab goodbye for a good, long while.
It’s only the first week, but it feels already like the vet school is a different planet than it was last year. Compared to this time last August, I see so many more familiar faces, have so much more knowledge and skills than I did before, and have such a better idea of what to expect from the curriculum. How clear things are now that they aren’t clouded by the stress, or excitement (depending on how you look at things), of “newness”! This year, instead of the foundational work of the first year (anatomy, physiology, the “normal” body), we start to build on our knowledge and delve into, finally, the “abnormal” body. This year we learn about abnormal tissues in pathology, about disease conditions related to parasites in parasitology, and even about drug therapy and treatment options for common problems we may see in practice in our pharmacology class. Those are only three of the classes we’re taking this year, and certainly the rest are just as valuable, but would take longer to list out. What a great semester it’s going to be!
Already, I feel excited and re-inspired on my path to becoming a veterinarian. Not to be ignored is the fact that I get to continue my education at the newly named 3rd best vet school in the nation and 6th best vet school in the world. That’s right, folks, here at A&M, we’ve got the very best of the very best. So, while it’s hot and humid and not much fun to be outside here in College Station now, I’ll be happy inside the classrooms and study rooms of this great school again, and I’ll be looking forward to what I’ll learn this time around. Bring it on, second year! This future DVM is ready to go!