I'm a junior in high school (America) and for the longest time I wanted to pursue vet medicine. But as I got older and I found new hobbies I found it hard to still want to be a vet and not give up these hobbies (photography, cosplay, art). My parents want to force me to vet school to make good money but I can't tell if my heart is in it anymore. I still love animals and want to work with them, but I still want to explore and adventure before starting such a busy and serious career. Thoughts?
You definitely want your heart to be in it before committing to vet medicine. The work is hard, and the pay’s not great, really the only reason to pursue it is if you love it.
And I mean it when I say the pay is not great. Financial stress is a major factor in the poor mental health of veterinarians worldwide, and you being in the USA are going to set yourself up for some mortifying student debt. In Australia the average, experience veterinarian wage is around $76k to $82k per year, depending on where you look and where you live. The award wage (read: minimum wage for that industry and job description) for an experienced vet is about $72k per year, full time. Australia’s national minimum wage comes to about $38k per year.
Now, a vet is highly trained with a tertiary qualification. We’re clinicians and surgeons. A human doctor doing a similar job, with a similar amount of training would ears roughly double what we do.
I am not USA based, but it seems USA vets also earn about half of what a human doctor would earn. When you factor in student loans, you can draw your own conclusions about whether that’s ‘good money’ or not.
On the other hand, you are still fairly young. You have time to try things out and see whether they’re a passing interest or a long term passion, or something in between. Go on and dabble, play around or pursue whatever creative outlet makes your brain feel good. Some of these hobbies will last and some will not, and that’s okay.
A vet needs a non-animal hobby to stay sane anyway. There are vets who make art, who cosplay, who are photographers, etc. It’s hard to pursue these things particularly in the last 2 years of vet school and first two years of practice, but there are vets who do make time to do them. It’s about keeping sane.
A vet degree is challenging and time consuming, but so is the vet career. By all means keep it on the list, but don’t worry about using your youth to try out different experiences. Maybe you’ll come back to it, maybe you wont. Try new things, and see where you end up.
But don’t let your parents talk you into it ‘for the money’. You’ll just all end up disappointed.
