Hi ya’ll, it’s the first week of my second year of veterinary school.. how is that possible?
I came into this week very excited to start fresh this year and after having our first set of classes this week, that feeling continues. This year we finally get to learn disease & diagnosis and that is so exciting!! I feel refreshed and ready to get after it this year and I am still trying to wrap my head around how it is even possible that I only have 3 years left until I have the title of DVM!!!
Now, school has started and is in full swing but I really want to focus on this past summer and do a little recap of what that looked like for me and all of the feelings that came with it.
As I have mentioned in some previous posts, this summer I decided to do a graduate business minor program through Ohio State and I LOVED it! This program was genuinely better than I could have imagined and I cannot rave about it enough. This program is open to any graduate/professional programs at Ohio State but this year there were 12 of us in the program and we were all vet students which was amazing!
With all of us being in the veterinary school, every class was specifically catered to the business side of vet med. I loved it because it allowed the 12 of us to get really close throughout the summer and we all really enjoyed just coming to class to talk and catch up. All of the professors were great and I think we all have awesome business related connections now which will undoubtedly be helpful in our future careers in some way, shape, or form.
Anyways, this program was so great and I am very happy with my decision to apply and spend my summer taking night classes, haha. For reference, these classes started mid May and they ended the last week of July!
So what did I do with the rest of my summer? Well just to briefly recap, I worked in the lab at the vet school doing swine influenza research along with education & extension work, my boyfriend moved from Chicago to Ohio and now we live together (wooooo no more long distance!!), I worked for two weeks at The Ohio State Fair in the dairy department, and then I took a week long trip to Au Train, Michigan with my boyfriend and his family.
Oh… and we got a kitten so that makes 3 cats now for us (and that is our limit!!!) but we are so happy with the new baby and she really does complete our little family!
With all of that being said, this brings me to the main reason why I wanted to write this particular post. Why, after everything I just told you I did this summer, do I still feel like I didn’t do enough?? Enough for my future career. Enough compared to my peers. I DO NOT KNOW. But all I do know is that I should not ever look at all I did this summer and still not feel enough…
I’ve touched on this in previous blogs; it is normal to not feel enough and as vet students we are typically much harder on ourselves than we should be, but we need to change our mindset and change the narrative about this.
I know that personally, I really struggle with comparing myself to my peers and all that they are doing. It is really hard to take a week long vacation and while you are sitting on the beach, relaxing with a cold drink, you see a peer post that they just did 4 surgeries at their third externship and/or internship this summer… it is hard to not immediately feel bad about yourself and what you are doing with your summer. It is hard to feel like you are doing enough. It is hard to not feel behind.
Friends, none of this or these feelings are easy, but it is all about perspective. I felt these feelings this summer, asked myself why I wasn’t doing enough, was I falling behind? It took my family and friends telling me multiple times that I was doing more than enough before I analyzed all of the things I was doing and realizing, you know what, I am doing more than enough! I was in school all summer long when I didn’t have to be, I worked two jobs over the summer (while in school), and I took a vacation that I deserved!!
Once you start thinking of what YOU have done and not the other 164 people in your class, that mindset slowly slips away and you see how much you really are doing. Is your path different from your peers? YES. Do your summer plans look different than your peers? YES. But that is more than okay, that is what makes you you!
So please remember this when you start to doubt that you are doing enough. Wether you were packed full of veterinary experience this summer or you didn’t think about school or vet med for one second this summer and just took time to relax and any other scenario in between - you are doing more than enough. I promise you are.
We all know how important mental health is in this industry. If you needed to take some time for yourself (or even just wanted to) for any period of time over this summer, good for you! Prioritize your mental health and your happiness outside of the profession so that you are able to come back to school or work after the summer is over fully recharged and ready to take on whatever is ahead and continue to work your ass off.
All in all, breaks look different for us all and that is okay. Remember to take a step back, change your mindset and perspective, and be proud of yourself.
xoxo,
payton
August 24th, 2023