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You’re Not Alone

Kelsi E.Wow. This Friday will round out week 10 of my first semester of veterinary school.

Had you asked me how I was feeling two weeks ago, I’d have to confess I was debating whether this was truly my career path. I was struggling with the heavy course load, personal issues, and missing home more than any 22 year old ever would. With our exam schedule picking up and time seeming to just melt away, I wondered if I’d ever make it those last eight weeks. “Imposter Syndrome” was certainly rearing its ugly head and I felt totally alone.

Then I received a text from a classmate, who has quickly turned from stranger to best friend, confessing that they were sharing my doubts, and suddenly I was not alone! This changed everything. Having someone to share our struggles allowed us to easily dismiss the silly notions we each had about ourselves and tackle the problems logically.

We reached out to professors, classmates, the professional counselors Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVM) has on staff just for veterinary students, and even the dean (!)—and we were met with nothing but love and support. All of my professors have set aside time in their days to help me work through my struggles and fears, and the counselors have taught me strategies to handle my stress and remind me that I am most definitely not alone.

Since receiving that text message, my entire outlook has changed. Sure, veterinary school is hard. Studying, hard classes, and the craziness that comes with life will never go away, but I now know that I will always have an entire support system who all want me to be the best veterinarian I can possibly be, and with their help, I know I will be!

My advice to anyone aspiring to be a veterinarian is that no matter what is going on in your life and no matter how bad it might seem—reach out. Someone likely is feeling the exact same way that you are and at the CVM, you’re never alone!

The Value of ‘Brain Breaks’

Taylor SheffieldThe first year of veterinary school is fun, exhilarating, and, sometimes, exhausting. With the excitement of class and lab throughout the day and then coming home to study at night, we vet students occasionally forget how to step away from the books and slightly relax.

Now that the semester is half way over, I have learned that those tiny moments away from the books are essential to everyday life. At first, school seemed to take a big chunk of my time, or so I thought, and I could not possibly imagine fitting in any “brain breaks.”

Well, that did not last too long. I found my focus had started to decrease once I got home from school, and so I had to learn how to incorporate a small break here and there.

First, I decided to continue my summer exercise routine of 40 minutes a day of some kind of exercise I enjoyed. Personally, I enjoy running and yoga. Although some days I may not have all of that time, even 20 or 30 minutes of exercise is enough to get me up and away from the books. During those 30 minutes, I get my blood pumping, clear my mind, and take a step away from the bright luminesce screen. On days when studying is long and vigorous, after two hours I take a break and do a workout video from YouTube, and that short, and free 20, minutes of exercise is just enough to get me up out of my chair and reset my brain.

There are days when exercise is just not appealing, so other little stress relievers are useful. Coloring while listening to music, doing a load of laundry, baking a cake, taking 10 minutes for meditation, or even vacuuming up the apartment are all ways I step away from school. An even better brain break, and one I enjoy very much, as most veterinarian students do, is to play or cuddle with my cat, which releases that small amount of stress I was focusing on while studying.

Over the last nine weeks, the most important thing I have learned is to take those small breaks. I know it can be difficult at times, but those breaks help improve studying! Research has shown that our brains are not meant to look at something or stay stationary for long periods of time, so having short mental breaks, ranging from 20-30 minutes, can actually improve information retention.

So, no matter what you’re doing, remember to occasionally take a step away, enjoy the fresh air, and let the mind reset.

Finding the Joy

Michelle M.Vet school is a dream come true for all of the students currently enrolled in Texas A&M’s College of Veterinary Medicine!

Despite this, it can be easy to become bogged down in exams, personal struggles, and commitments, at times, especially at the end of the semester as finals approach. This is why since starting school, many of us have taken to heart a concept explained to us during our first-year orientation.

“Find the Joy” is a mantra that has been repeated more times than I can count. Whenever my class has been overwhelmed with a particularly challenging exam or week, someone has always reminded us to find the joy; it is a reminder to look at the little things in life that make you happy to bring you back to perspective that your struggles will pass and are not as insurmountable as you currently think they are. And that no matter what, there is joy in your life, if only you seek to find it.

Each semester, right before finals week, the Texas A&M chapter of the Student American Veterinary Association (SAVMA) hosts something called “Find the Joy” week. It is a series of events spanning over the course of a week specifically for the vet students. All of these events are free or discounted for the students as a way for them to relax and take a little bit of time being active, creative, or just away from their books.

I am currently the secretary of SAVMA and we just finished planning the events for this year’s “Find the Joy” week. The events this year range from a class at You Paint It, yoga, bingo, an escape room, ice skating, and more. I’m organizing the You Paint It class and am looking forward to relaxing with my classmates and showing just how horrible my artistic skills are. But it is in the name of “Find the Joy” and a good cause.

Celebrating the Small Things

Caitlin O.Veterinary school is tough, but it is so worth it. The best part of school is getting to finally learn about what you have wanted to learn about for so long—veterinary medicine. When you can look at what you are learning and then apply it to something you have seen when you have shadowed or worked previously, it makes class so much fun.

After so many days of class and lab, though, vet school also can be exhausting. It is hard to maintain that same excitement you had during orientation; you forget to look at the things you are learning and see a clinical application. Instead, you see another topic to study before your first test.

One thing that I have learned from this year, my first in vet school, is to celebrate the small things. There are so many times when I wish that I had gotten a better grade on a test or that I had more time to sleep, but when I walk into school everyday and remind myself that I get to go to vet school, I have such a different outlook on the day; I remember that I want to be here and that this is getting me so much closer to getting into practice and seeing everything in person that I am currently learning.

When you look at your day, there are many small things to celebrate. Some of my favorite things are when we get out of class five minutes early or when it is a beautiful day outside and we get to sit in the courtyard for lunch. Another great day is when we don’t have to wear closed-toed shoes. Even getting the clicker questions right in class is something to celebrate.

I think my favorite thing to celebrate is when I get to the parking lot at the same time as my friends so we get to walk the eight minutes from our cars to the school together. It is so fun to see a friendly face before I even walk into the building, and it gives me time to hear about their lives or swap funny stories from the night before.

Celebrating the small things has helped me find vet school really enjoyable. There are late nights studying and difficult tests, but they are all worth it for the learning opportunities that I have. And that is the greatest thing of all to celebrate—I have wonderful learning opportunities because I am now in vet school, a place I have wanted to be my whole life.

Class Schedule, Exams, and Stress

Recently, on a veterinary school tour, I heard this question: “How does the class schedule look like?”

Dr. NantikaI rarely get asked this—I’m more commonly asked how hard it is to get into veterinary school—but this is an important question, because, in my opinion, I think that it is harder to complete a DVM degree than it is to get accepted to veterinary school.

To start, we can look at my spring veterinary class schedule and how I am dealing with this hectic routine. I start the week with Monday, 8 a.m. exams and end with my Friday, 3 p.m. class.

My daily studying hours are blocked from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., or perhaps more like 3 a.m. Not being a morning person, this is a real challenge. It is important to know your learning style and quickly implement a study routine. This will save time for studying and will increase time for sleep. If you want to attend vet school, you need to get ready to put in that many study hours.

The exam schedule usually begins on the third week of the semester. The second-year vet students have exams almost every Monday and Friday. This continues until final exams at the end of the semester. Additionally, even though Tuesday and Wednesday classes start at 10 a.m., I still wake up and review the materials at 6 a.m. before the weekly quizzes (this semester, for pharmacology or toxicology). It feels like a constant pounding of studying, preparing, and taking exams.

The consequence of these class and exam schedules is stress. We all are dealing with it (differently, in some ways, and similarly, in others).

Because of this, I have found that it’s important to focus on my top reasons in order for me to keep going. These include:

Friends—It is delightful to have friends who accept your weaknesses and strengths. I have a language difficulty because English is not my first language, so my friends take time to spell things out for me or to explain things to me when I don’t understand the lecture. Many of my classmates were very competitive when we first got into vet school. But that competitiveness has gradually regressed as we all started to understand that we are here to be successful together. Every morning, one of my friends asks me, “Nantika, how it is going?” It’s a simple question that brings a smile and helps me get ready for the day.

Nantika Art 2CVM Counselor—I used to be afraid to let people know that I’m struggling through my classes. I stayed stressed and grumpy for my whole first-year fall semester. I became an unhappy and frustrated person, which impacted my productivity. I decided to seek help from CVM counselor Elizabeth Eaton. She guided me through accepting my weaknesses and fear of failure. I feel lucky that the Texas A&M Vet School takes the students’ mental health and wellness seriously. We also have a stress reduction room and relaxation space, where we have a massage chair and biofeedback equipment to help de-stress and help the body to achieve a relaxation response.

Time outside school—It’s hard to pull myself away from studying, but I realize I need to do something besides study. So, I chose to paint. While I’m painting, I really focus on the canvas and color in my brush. That is one form of meditation that I have started to enjoy in order to refresh my mind.

The love of medicine and animals—At the end of the day, I see the innocent eyes of my dogs, one of which recently got diagnosed with immune-mediated hemolytic anemia. It reminds me why I’m pursuing this career, because I want to learn medicine and use my knowledge to improve the health of the animals.

Taking Time to Enjoy the Little Things

Daniel H.I feel that as I’ve gotten older, time has gone by much quicker. Days pass by in what feels like minutes, months fly by in hours, and years fly by in weeks. Throughout high school and even into college, I felt that I didn’t appreciate the time as it was happening; it felt like I was just focusing test to test, one event to the next, but I didn’t appreciate the things that were happening every day. Now that I’m in veterinary school, I’m trying to change that mindset, to not look at a professor’s material as “boring” just because it isn’t the subject matter that I’m interested in, to not complain about waking up early or staying up late, but to enjoy where I’m at. I feel that I’m fortunate to be here and to complain about the little things doesn’t allow me to be appreciative of the opportunities I have been given.

Naturally, one of the ways I found to stay grounded and to stop looking to the future was getting a puppy. Now, sure, when he was going through potty training, there was nothing more that I looked forward to than a future of not cleaning up messes every hour or so, but I came to appreciate the little times with him—learning how to walk on a leash, the first time he learned to sit, even the confused face that he gives when I’m mad at him for chewing up something, how he just wants to play. Now I have a 7-month-old Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever named Finnley who forces me to spend time appreciating the things outside of school. Strolls down the street become a time to reflect on my day; he appreciates me no matter how many questions I miss on a test or how stressed I can get because of school.

Another tool that I’ve used to stay focused on where I am is to eliminate as much stress as possible. When we stress, we just focus on doing anything we can to get through that period of time, but this is something that can easily be avoided with good time management and by not stretching yourself too thin. I think the most important thing to avoid stress is to find a time to do something that relieves stress: going on a walk, reading a book, or taking a nap (for a reasonable amount of time). These are all great relievers of stress, but what works for one person won’t necessarily work for another, so it is important to find what brings you inner peace. In all the songs about living like we are dying (looking at you, Tim McGraw), they describe how the people live and focus on the day by forgeting about the stress of the next week or the next month.

So go out there and be like Tim McGraw, live like there is no tomorrow, because tomorrow isn’t always guaranteed. Focus on each day, and find appreciation and value in the little things in your life.