Vet School is Like:
Over the two years I have been in vet school, I have accumulated a few analogies to what vet school is really like. Some are funny, some are commonly used, and some are just painfully accurate. So, without further ado, vet school is like:
Vet school is like trying to drink information from a fire-hose on full blast, while it’s raining and a tsunami is headed your way.
Vet school is like eating 20 pancakes, every single day, for 4 years. Even if you LOVE pancakes, after awhile your appetite for pancakes disappears.
Vet school is like sprinting a marathon.
Vet school is like seeing a really yummy plate of food that you have been craving for YEARS, but when you eat a mouthful, you realize it isn’t nearly as yummy as it looked a few minutes ago.
Vet school is like trying to satisfy a greedy, hungry, monster. Everyday you will have to sacrifice a little piece of yourself in order to appease it.
After six and a half years of practice I can honestly tell you:
After drinking from that hose, even though it’s impossible to take up everything, you’re still going to be soaked. Bits of you will dry out, but that’s okay because you never actually turn off that darn hose.
You can live on pancakes, but maybe your life will be better for the next thirty years if you stick to your favourite toppings (specialise) and avoid the ones that make you truly sick. Our tastes can change too.
Eventually you’re going to pull a muscle in that marathon sprint. Sometimes you need to pause and stretch, and should do so regularly. Take your annual leave.
Maybe that plate of food doesn’t taste quite like you were expecting, but it can still be good in a different way. Chocolate doesn’t look like it should be appetising, but it certainly is.
That greedy, hungry monster never stops demanding part of you, every day. But you’re trained to deal with hungry, angry, uncooperative beasts, it’s what you do now. You can tame it. You can outsmart it. It’s possible to only sacrifice the same part of yourself everyday, keeping the rest of yourself intact.
This never stops, only instead of doing exams twice a year you’re doing four exams per hour, every working day, when you walk into that consult room and say “Hi, I’m the vet.”
