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Keeping Perspective for the Spring

Being a biomedical sciences (BIMS) major, it is fair to say that most of us want to eventually go to professional school.

Most schools take holistic approaches in evaluating their students, so we applicants try to make ourselves as well-rounded as possible. As much as we don’t like to admit it, this leads to a certain amount of competitiveness between us.

Shadowing, volunteering, working, or research—these are all experiences that we all try to stack up. And I find myself comparing what I’ve been doing to what my peers are doing: She’s volunteering at St. Joseph’s Hospital and doing research! He’s shadowing in the operating room over winter break! These thoughts constantly pop up.

Last semester, I worked two part-time jobs, one as a lab assistant in Texas A&M’s health and kinesiology department and the other here as a BIMS Ambassador.

Academically, I was also taking “Organic Chemistry” and “General Biology II,” along with six other credits, while doing research as part of the Biomedical Research Certificate Program.

Time management skills were crucial. I learned the hard way that studying ahead of time was the only way for me to be successful in really understanding the material from my classes for exams.

I learned to take deep breaths and pace myself when things seemed overwhelming and like they weren’t accomplishable.

I have learned to accept that I am already trying my best and doing what I can as an applicant. Comparing and worrying will do me no good, thus my goal for this semester is to start out with a different mindset.

Everyone is striving to reach their own goals and working hard for themselves, but we can all be in it together and help each other get through the rough times.

I can already feel a portion of the weight that has been on my shoulders lift with this change of perspective of things!

Where has the Semester Gone?

We are just about to finish our 11th week of veterinary school, which means we only have four weeks left until finals! It feels like just last week that we were at orientation.

Veterinary school has been an endless cycle of going to class every day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and then going home and studying.

It’s easy to become overwhelmed with the amount of information that is thrown at us each day, but it’s important to keep your eye on the “prize”—all of that information has been helping me improve and learn the skills I need to become a doctor.

Hands-on learning through “live-animal labs” have been my favorite thing in veterinary school so far because we get to apply everything we have learned in the classroom. During live-animal labs we practice skills such as learning how to listen to the heart and lungs and how to look at the eyes, ears, and mouths of dogs, cats, horses, and cows. In the spring, we will learn how to give physical exams to each of these species!

These hands-on days really help me remember why I am sitting in a classroom for eight hours every day.

Another thing that has been really helpful is semester is having a second-year mentor. Being able to reach out to someone who was in my position last year and ask them questions has been really amazing.

The mentors are there to be a person to whom you can turn and who can help answer questions you might not want to ask anyone else.

I think that it is important for all of us to take a step back at times and remind ourselves why we are here and what the end goal is—becoming a veterinarian, and we are four weeks away from being one semester closer to that goal!