Injecting some Happiness, Or I have Weathered this Storm!

So Dear readers I realize that I have been talking a lot about the hardships and stress of vet school, but this week I figured I should talk a little about all the good things that have happened, or at the very lest the not negative things going on in my life right now.
I will start with my friends, and how super supportive everyone is and even though it has only been about 9 weeks since we all met (feels more like several years), I have always had something to smile about with all of them around and when you decide that learning pretty much everything about how animals work and the names of every single thing inside and out, you really need people who you can talk to about classes but also about whatever. I am a part of a very sporadic game of Torchlight 2 (remember studying comes first but you need to take breaks), also a on going (in between classes) discussion of a D&D game which may or may not come to pass but at the very lest the conversations are great (king of the dragonborn and a ranger without a bow), so yes friends are very important to keeping you on track and mentally sound.
Moving on with some of the things the school offers to help you stay happy (fair warning I Don't participate  with any of the stuff I am about to mention), like an ultimate frisbee club I know a few people who play with them all the time and they like it, there are thriving basket ball and FootBall (not US) leagues which even have teams and uniforms, the crossfit people are entertaining to watch after class, and if you would rather not flip tires the school has a (very) small gym, and if you go off campus you can get your scuba certification, lay on the beach, or rent a boat for a trip. And if you don't like the water there are island hikes every weekend, (I really have no idea how people find the time for these activates but I guess if I had a car and I could go racing I would unless there was a big test coming up).
Anyway It is very easy to fall into despair here, you know how much I have struggled here if you have been reading this blog, and it has been a good way for me to face my own problems head on, but what I haven't talked about is the fact that I always try to keep a smile on my face though everything I also try to cheer up those that are around me, because I am not the only one struggling and if I can make someone else smile then I fill a bit better about my problems. after all we all moved to an Island to go to vet school/med school, and we all feel the pressure building up like we live in systolic hypertension, (High blood presser during the contraction of the heart which maybe caused by a reduced elasticity of the aorta) but the we just have to take that bitter pill every morning, and try are very best to be better then we where yesterday, and last week, and last month, and last year. Smiling is the only way to get though it, and you need friends to smile with you, (it doesn't matter if they are human or animal friends, both are nice) and it doesn't matter if those friends are on the other side of the world complaining about there AC, or if they are down the hall they all make a big difference.
Well I will wrap it up Here for now, remember smile more and you will see the storm clouds roll away from the faces of those around you, also thanks for reading I will talk to you next week.

 Also we played with cows this week, which brings a smile to everyone's face.

Help not welcome. Or Watch the Breaking of Time!

Hello reader, today I could talk about the stress of midterms, however I am just starting to recover from it so I will get to it some other time.
Now lets talk about a watch, my watch to be specific I have had this one watch since the summer of 2012, which is a long time for cheap watch that I pretty much had on me at all times. It lived though working at two camps, most of my undergrad which included working at the school in the summers, more races then I can remember (which is not that hard to do), it's been all over the the southeast with me, still it is just a watch and when it started to break I just taped it up because I didn't want to deal with a new watch and when I started having to use a rubber band because that piece right after the buckle broke, I really just thought it was because it wasn't to far gone. unfortunately during finals week my watch broke to a degree that I have decided to be unfixable and also unfortunately mt watch is a metaphor. (but I will let you think about it for a bit)
Now on to the meat which in this case is really based around one of the reasons I don't like to study with groups, sure their is the fact that I will be the most distracted and get no work done, however the other problem is that I have this stupid thought that if I go and study with people I must already know everything before even talking about it with people so that I can appear smart. Now the interesting thing is that there are two major driving forces at work here, and first up we have my low self esteem, which drives me believe that even though I was smart enough to get in to vet school that everyone here is about a million times smarter then me (it was so much easier when I could just assume that I would never get into vet school, Sigh), and at the same time my overly competitive side which tells me that I need to win vet school and be the smartest person here. (Okay so you might have noticed some conflict with these two ways of thinking but just wait for this one) This also keeps me from wanting to asking for help from anyone, (Just let me do it, I'll take care of it, No I am fine, I've got this... etc,) which is though, now understand that I will ask for help but only after I can't do something by myself, and only when it is my idea (also their are the people who I will ask for help from and those that I will not ask for help from). Unfortunately I can't really help you if you struggle with these same things, because I am very happy to study alone in my room where at least I can recover from a distraction. 
Back to the watch which is of coarse A Metaphor for myself, I have taped, glued, zip tied, leaned ageist the wall in the appearance of being whole, for what feels like so long (but to be fair only started in undergrad, and also to be fair I was doing such a good job of it). The really sad thing is that it only took 8 weeks of vet school classes on a island to bring it all crashing down, it is okay though I am rebuilding myself the wright way this time.
Anyway the morals of the story are, 1. vet school is hard but not just the classes, it is everything that is hard, and it is hard on your mind and body, 2. Buy a new watch before you start vet school.
Talk to you Next week, Thanks for reading.
P.S. Love you Mom and Dad thanks for all the support!

  

Midterm Midterms. Or 101 Given up, and Forgotten Dreams! (also known as how I got where I am)

So midterms start tomorrow, and I am very nerves (my last semester of undergrad stripped a lot of my confidence so coming almost immediately from there to here their was not a good way to build it up again), however instead of talking about how scared I am that I will screw up so bad on the midterms that there is no hope of recovery. which only crosses my mind when I am not 100% looked in studying (so right now), but breaks are impotent too, (Austin Peay is on fall break this week HAVE FUN WHILE YOU CAN) so instead of all that negativity I thought I would talk about everything I have given up to get where I am (in vet school), also all the things I have gained here and leading up to here (here=Vet school), and over all why I wouldn't change a thing (dang-it I gave away the whole thing oh well).
So what triggered this sudden remembrance of wins and losses, in relation to my some what crazy career path. Well when I came to this island I was a Somewhat sponsored racecar driver, which was something I found infinitely cool (I don't think I am some great driver but I enjoy driving and racing cars) Unfortunately do to the fact that I will be missing most of the session back home and my sponsor ramping up the team I decided that it would be in mine and the teams best interest to go are own ways, (this was actually a very hard decision for me to make because I really loved being a part of that team) I will never forget how that experience changed my life, because of Made I was able to meet people who I would have never met otherwise, I learned a lot about the sport of drifting, I stopped peddling what might be the cheapest STR miata in the world and started taking racing and the car build more seriously, (from both a performance and a visual aspect) all while I was able to go out and race with my dad (and sometimes my mom) which was great (not just because I almost always beat him depending on what we are driving) now don't get the wrong idea here I am still going to be racing when ever, where ever, and whatever I can. (I am the lead diver and head mechanic for Team UnderDog Racing, A Father and Son grassroots racing team of my own creation but my dad is still the team owner) Wow I talked a lot about this one thing, lets move on okay.
I have given up on Money to be here, you see vet school is not cheap and vet school on a island is extra not cheap, now I know what you are all saying and yes it is cheaper then going to Auburn. If you want a number think around the $300,000 dollar range in loans alone that does not include interest or taxes, so yes most of my future money is already spent and yes there are ways to lower that or make it go away. However that takes more of something we also giving up which is Time, while most people are out being productive, living life, buying a house, we are stuck in school and yes are job is way better then yours, (for me it is anyway) but still it is a struggle to watch all you old friends leave you not really behind but Just Sorta Off To The Side, which is just as bad but for different reasons. So what have I gained well I have the opportunity to save the life's of countless animals and save the heartache of countless humans, I can use the position I am in to help kids like myself realize their lofty dreams (so who needs stacks of money or Time plus I really want to clone extinct animals and they lost way more time then me). I also have already made so meany people that I feel like I've know for years and I am very comfortable calling my friends (some times that means you get to comfortable and push buttons a little to much and get on each others nerves but we talk it out and make up  eat some food get some sleep and keep on being friends).

You know what I wouldn't do anything differently, every loss, every win, I have ever had adds up to Me, and if I where writing a book (which I can here my old English teachers cringe at the thought) I would struggle to fit all the life, Good times and Bad, wins and losses, and all the ties into it so I think I will leave you with some quotes from some of my role models "You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." (C.S. Lewis) 
"And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high." (Ayrton Senna)
“I've read the last page of the Bible, it's all going to turn out all right.” (Billy Graham)
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,Nothing is going to get better. It's not.”(Dr. Seuss, The Lorax)
I will talk to you again next week, Thanks for Reading!

 

Chilly? Or Motivational Dreams!

Yet again things are going slow right before the ramp up to midterms, anyway so far everything is going okay classes are "interesting" when you can both hear and understand what the professors are talking about (which most of the time I can), although this weeks Physo professor did decide that we all needed to watch a USSR propaganda film. Where they where bring dogs back from clinical death 15min later with "no" ill effects, and "reanimating" severed dog heads to top all of this off are professor is from Germany, ( to be fair there was some real information on the heart and how it works although it was very early in the film).
Moving on from being scared, I made chilly yesterday and it was pretty good except, I am not used to making it in such a small portion so it ended up being a bit (A lot!) spicier then I intended, it was still good though after I got over the shock.
And since it was a slow week I figured I would talk about sleep or the lack there of. Professional school students have a hard time letting themselves relax enough to get to sleep. Unless its a unearthly hour of the morning, or they distract there minds enough to fall asleep, the first way is pretty self explanatory you stay up working/studying till 3-4AM in extreme cases 5-6AM this is obviously unhealthy and we should all shoot for at least 6-7 hours of sleep a night, (I am not saying that I get that much sleep every night but I am trying to go to bed earlier. The second has multiple ways off working all with there own unique side effects, for myself I like to listen to a podcast while trying to fall asleep, but I always set a sleep timer and I try to stop and take my headphones out before falling asleep (if the sound didn't stop then my brain would still be listing to it and i wouldn't be as rested the loophole is that if you can listen to your music/podcast, without headphones then you can just turn the volume down to where you can barley hear it however setting a sleep mode up is always a good option). Any who I say all of this just so I can talk about how I couldn't sleep a couple of weeks ago, because for whatever reason my brain was writing a motivational speech, (and let me tell you it's a pretty good one) now I have never given or written a motivational speech before (I have given a lot of speeches just not this kind), and I am still not sure if I was just trying to motivate myself or if I really wanted to brighten my classmates days. Regardless I could not fall asleep right away it would always be 2-3AM before I would finally come to and figure out that I had been laying in bed for four hours, imaging myself giving this speech that I was writing as i went. It was not till four nights of this that I deiced to just give in and put this thing on paper, and since I did I have not had trouble falling asleep, even right before a test when I am stressed I can lay down listen to a few minutes of a podcast and then go straight to sleep.

Sometimes you need motivate yourself, and sometimes you have bad timing, but no matter what we all absolutely need to sleep or our brains will shut down and no amount of USSR reanimation magic can help you then so just eat a big bowl of chilly, and let you mind and body take a nice long rest (just not during class ok), Till next week when I will probable talk about some other random subject, see you then.     

A Comedy of Quiz's Or Gupta's Home Style Cooking and Fusion

This last week was crazy three quizzes, two in anatomy, and one in animal nutrition. This lead to high stress levels, and loads of studying which normally would be a boring blog post but ill give it a go. reading notes x99000, going over bones and muscles x130000, and that is pretty much it aside from this weekend which was spent (gasp!) studying Histo for the quiz on Monday.
On to the more interesting part of the week which almost entirely happened on Friday (and by almost I mean it all happened on Friday after class), I got a hair cut which was okay a bit expensive, then I went to the improve comedy clubs show, which was very funny in till I got ("randomly") chosen to participate but that wasn't to bad, I was told that I was funny (shrug). moving on to the best part of Friday night and it wasn't the lights, it was the cooking a couple of us vet students got to gather each  providing parts of the cooking supply's, Ben (a faceless, meaning less name to most of you) was planning on doing most of the cooking but I couldn't help myself so I help with the cooking, at the same time a non company (part of the student visa we have here is we cannot make money), anyway myself and Ben decided that it would be nice to do this cooking at someones kitchen using a lot of different food stuffs. We also felt that this needed a name we settled on Gupta's Home Style Cooking and Fusion, (Dr. Gupta is are Histo professor) also I liked the idea that it would be like a food truck.
Now I am looking back at this post it's really not very good but I did almost forget to write it so I suppose it will have to do for this week and hopefully I will do a better job, anyway remember don't hold yourself to overly high blog standards. see you next week ^_^

   

Bowling the Quiz Or When the Breaking Point Hits!

So I feel like a lot has happened this week we had our first quiz, term 1 went bowling, we had anatomy lab check, and other stuff. Just feels busy plus all the studying for the anatomy quiz's
But lets start with the quiz it was not as bad as I thought it would be, everything was very organized and ran smooth. Now the bowling trip went pretty good as well, every one had fun and seemed to relax a bit, which is just what we all needed plus the next day was Grenada's independence day so we got the day off school (we tried to take advantage of the break with varying degrees of success.
I had my small animal clinical orientation lab on Friday which went good (it was just a general fiscal of a dog which most people haven't done before so if you are thinking of being a vet ask your vet if they would walk you though one on your animal its great practice) luckily for me Austin Peay has one of the best teachers around who taught us how to do fiscals. In fact Austin Peay did a great job preparing me for vet school there hasn't been any totally new concepts or subjects.
But lets move on to something that has been one of the big talking subjects around campus Breaking Points and what happens when we hit them, this was sparked by the sudden announcement by a med student that they where done and they where leaving, and its not like they where the first to leave going to school on a island is not all sunny days and beaches, in fact if you can do well here then you should be able to practice anywhere with no problem. However all your peers may not feel the same way since Island schools career lot of negative cognition's, which is one of the reasons I am writing this blog. So what should we do when we start questing why we are here? Well the problem is that it is a different answer for every person, what I can tell you is running away or trying to ignore it are never good options, SGU goes so far out of there way to try and make sure that every student knows about the help they can get here for free, for every thing from studying to mental stress and fatigue.
The big problem is that we are all to proud to ask for help when we need it, and we push all our problems down in till we break and it floods out of us all at once, threatening to overwhelm us pushing us away from our Hopes, Dreams, and Goals only leaving a scared kid that has no reason to be here. Now the vet school has only lost one person (so far as I am aware), however midterms are just around the corner and I am afraid that the stress will get to more of us. If the stress does get to you just remember that little kid inside that has all those Hopes of  saving life's, Dreams of one day wearing the white coat and having people look at you with admiration, and Goals of becoming a Doctor. And then you will remember why you are putting yourself though all this stress, It's because you could never see yourself doing anything other then becoming a vet.
I will see you all next week, for more adventures and hopefully less stress.

The art of Snake catching Or cultural cross reference!

This last week was mostly uneventful other then studying for the first Quiz, (quiz = small test) most people seem nervous about it. However I feel like its coming more from the strict testing procedures then the material it's self, but we will see Tomorrow how it goes.
So what did happen this week well one yesterday was one of my classmates (and Fellow Tennessean) birthday there was a nice party, cake, I made Sweet tea which is already becoming something I talk about far to much, along with other southern tropes (hey I like the south). Moving on to the other thing that happened, I went snake hunting with the herpetology club which was very fun we where driven (almost to quickly) to Grand Etang where we where split up in to groups and sent down trails, oh did I mention it was dark, and it had rained the day before (MUD!) this lead to lots of almost falling over even when standing still. I almost slide right in to a stream, lucky I didn't and we went on looking for snakes, unfortunately we did not catch any and by we I mean my group one of the other groups did get one. my group did hear some monkeys, one lizard, some bats, a bird, a frog, a male and a female wolf spider (not in the same place), a scorpion, and a Opossum.
Well I think that's it for this week sorry it's so short I will be sure to have more news and adventure next week, But in till then just remember Do Not Go Walking in the Jungle After Dark Alone, Bring your friends.
Also Photos are very hard to take on rough roads in a moving van but I did my best here you go.