A Lot Can Happen In A Year

If you had asked me at the beginning of my fourth year of vet school where I would be a year after graduation, I would probably have told you Omaha. I had no plans to leave the Midwest and was engaged to someone I had been with for 6 years. Here's a quick run-down of what happened since then:

*I went from panicking every time I tried to work on wedding planning, to planning to just get married in front of a judge, to ending the relationship altogether. He is a great guy, but meant for someone else and not for me.

*I entered into a relationship with someone I had become friends with playing a NERDY online game (This).

*I decided I needed to get out of the Midwest and live somewhere new, and thought Atlanta would be a good place...coincidentally, where said online gamer nerd, aka Robbie, lived. This was not an easy decision because as much as I liked this guy, I couldn't move somewhere just for that potential relationship. I had to think a lot about whether I could be happy in Atlanta alone.

*I met Robbie while interviewing for jobs in Atlanta. Here's a pic of our first date ever. :) Luckily, he ended up being even more wonderful in person than I could have hoped.

*I finally graduated from vet school and thus ended my 8 consecutive years of college.

*I moved to Atlanta in the 16 hour drive from hell (with a dog and 3 cats as travelmates), and began getting settled in my suburb of Fayetteville right at the time Robbie was moving to Augusta (a 2.5 hour drive) for his job.

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In 10 days I will officially have been working for 1 year. In that year I have learned a lot about my profession and about myself. It is true what they say in school - you learn more in your first year of practice than in the entirety of vet school. The motivation to understand/diagnose/treat diseases is much higher when you have a pet showing symptoms in front of you. I have worked with 5 different doctors, 2 of which ended up getting fired and 1 of which got transferred. I have met the whole spectrum of clients ranging from fabulous to eye-gouging. I had a client ask me to give him a rectal exam as my fingers were smaller than his doctor's.

I have been entrusted with a vet student's education this summer...so far she has gotten to see some amazing cases and some mistakes. Everybody makes them but it's how you respond to them that matters. I am mocked endlessly for saying pop, but I will not bend! It is NOT coke, it's pop, so stop laughing at me. I have been told by clients that I look like I could be their child, and asked if I am old enough to be doing this. Apparently if I looked haggard I would therefore look more trustworthy and knowledgeable.

I have survived my first threatened lawsuit and my first client education mistake (thankfully separate cases). I have had to learn how to not bring work home with me. I'm still working on that one - I frequently have trouble sleeping when I am worried about how a particular patient is doing.

I have, perhaps surprisingly, LOVED living in the South. The accent is charming, the people are polite (aside from the occasional extreme redneck), and I get to have conversations with strangers EVERYWHERE! Whether I am at the grocery store, Target, or the hair salon, everybody likes to chat and I love it. A character trait that always embarrassed me in my Dad while growing up is one I have now embraced wholeheartedly. I'm not sure I can ever live anywhere else, because that would mean I would have to give up good sweet tea and fried pickles.

The biggest downside to living down here is being so far away from my family. It was a little rough this first year, especially after they visited for Christmas. Robbie tells me it gets easier with time, but my aunts who live in New York and Seattle have cried leaving after every visit my whole life. I don't think it will really get easier. I know once I have children I would like them to grow up spending quality time with my parents, so I will likely need to consider moving back to the Midwest when that happens as I don't see my parents moving down here.

I've also been in a long-distance relationship with Robbie for over a year now. My work schedule accommodates fairly frequent visits so we see each other every 1-2 weeks, but that is becoming more difficult to deal with. It's something we are working on. Today we officially finished our first 90 days of P90X. I can't believe we did it. I know if I had tried it alone I wouldn't have made it past the first week, but as something done together it was not only possible but even fun at times.

That's about all for now. I am going to try to keep up with this pretty regularly although I've never been good at keeping a journal so we shall see. I wish I would have blogged my first year of practice as I would have had some great stories to share, but starting now will have to do.

Cheers,

Carrie