How vet school ate my life...

Hi again!! Long time this time, huh? I just couldn’t keep up with this blog thing as vet school got more and more intense and as I worked through my clinical year at Tufts University. Which is where I’ve been since last September, doing rotation after rotation, hoping that what information I was managing to cram into my brain was not immediately falling right out of the other side. Long shifts, minimal exercise, eating crappy food and having been slathered with just about every substance an animal can produce - it’s been…interesting. But I have made some really great friends along the way and had numerous crazy animal encounters that would take up pages and pages if I were to recount them here. My best wishes to all the V’10s that are off doing internships or at their first jobs, as well as the V’11’s who just have a little longer to stick with it! And to Bronwen, my fantastic roommate who is halfway through her third year – you will make it and you will be happy you did it. You have all the time in the world to finish vet school if you decide to stop and do a masters first. And it wouldn’t be the worst thing to get out of Grafton for a bit ☺.


So I passed my boards in April (though not without extreme mental instability while studying and waiting on results), and am now done with all my rotations and all graduated and that, meaning that somehow, someone out there decided I was fit to be a doctor. Whoa. Don’t feel like I know much yet but hoping that once my head starts to be clear of any and all horse/cow/sheep/chicken diseases, things will start to fall into place. Ideally.

Clinical year did however, give me one unexpected blessing - I met and have since been dating my wonderful boyfriend Vin, who finished up his veterinary pathology residency at Tufts this past June. Though the last eight months have been spattered with time away for externships and studying and family, we are still going strong and hoping to continue that way. The way forward concerning jobs and locations is still very much up in the air, but hopefully in the next six months or so, the uncertainty will ease up and bit and I will finally have a place I can call home.

The next adventure for me is what inspired me to start trying to keep up with this blog again – in four days Vin and I will be embarking on a 9 week trip to Nepal. Nepal has always been a country that I’ve been drawn to, and I am fortunate enough right now to not only be able to make the trip, but to be able to do it with such a perfect traveling mate. I am also fortunate enough to have several friends who have spent time in Nepal and Kenny was even able to put me in touch with Kishwor, a friend and guide who works out of Kathmandu. Kishwor and I have been in touch and are planning a 2-3 week trek along the Annapurna circuit in the Himalayas for Vin and I, with him as our guide. Should be epic. After we get back from that, we’ll take a load off for a week or so, then try to maybe summit Island peak, a 20,000ft mountain in the Everest region. Then, starting in mid-November, Vin and I will be volunteering at an animal shelter/spay clinic in Kathmandu called the Kathmandu Animal Centre (KAT). They have connections to Tufts and so far it has been easy enough to arrange our time there. After that we have about a week left to do whatever pleases us, after which we return home. So there you have it – the itinerary everyone has been asking me for. Unfortunately that’s about as specific as I would like to get, because in my experience, too much rigidity in the schedule just leads to disappointment and stress. I didn’t spend two and half years going with the flow on a Caribbean island for nothing. ☺

So that’s what I got. I think this trip is just what the doctor ordered for both Vin and I. Some time to relax and clear our heads while surrounded by beautiful mountain scenery and generous, wonderful people. I will keep updates as often as I can- I’ve found its easier to keep up with this thing while abroad than at home. Take care everyone!