Welcome to our blog. Are you a student stumbling your way through vet school? For all our fellow vet students and practitioners, this is the most perfect and relatable place. Let’s share all our extraordinary experiences!
Medical school was never meant to be easy. It’s a rollercoaster ride with a lot to learn and requires a lot patience and passion. But all that hard work we put in is worth something.
With so much hope and excitement, I was awaiting to start my college life. It was going to be a new beginning, a step towards my career path. Unfortunately, this took an unexpected turn. In the past two years, we have seen and experienced things we were not prepared for. The Coronavirus has changed our lives in many ways. There was so much uncertainty in every aspect of life. There was chaos everywhere.
We had to get used to a new lifestyle altogether. We had no choice!
So, slowly we started coming up with ways to continue life. To normalize the “stay at home” culture and before we knew it, we were attending online classes.
This is not how I had imagined college life! The excitement, the thrill, the motivation to learn something new, was slowly dying. I was afraid that I would lose interest in the course that I chose and a career that I thought would be perfect for me. To keep your motivation alive, when half the world is falling apart, is not an easy thing to do. But I kept pushing. I kept trying.
Finally, after 7 months of online classes and exams, one fine day, we got the official notice of colleges reopening. When I first saw the notice, I didn’t quite understand how to react.
“Should I be happy? Should I be scared? Is this for real? What if I get Covid? I need to start packing! What am I supposed to take to the hostel? How will I live alone? What if I don’t fit in?”
A million questions racing in my head, yet not a single expression on my face. So I took a deep breath and said to myself “It is finally happening.” Good or bad. It was happening. After spending almost an entire year at home, I was going to live in a hostel, all by myself. That thought scared me to the core, but I knew I had to face it either way.
Eventually things started falling in place, the level of chaos started going down, or at least I thought so. Then the day came. All lists were checked; all bags were packed. It was time to leave. I said goodbye to my dogs, that’s when I realized I wasn’t going to see them when I wake up every morning. I won’t be able to play with them or feed them.
I thought to myself, “This must be what bitter-sweet feels like!”. I had to leave them behind so that I could get into a profession where I can devote my life to them. It’s ironic in a way… poetic almost.
I don’t mean to scare anyone off, as everyone has their own level of dealing with things but man, was I right to be scared about living in a hostel.
My first week in college was an absolute disaster. The homesickness kicked in like a tsunami hitting an entire city. On top of that I had to catch up with my studies. It felt like a nightmare. No peace of mind, no orientation. Just confusion.
It started getting better with time as I started grasping the essence of the life of a veterinary student. I got to experience three postmortems within a month, which is rare! But I guess I got lucky. I performed my first dissection. I learned A LOT of new things.
That’s what put me back on track. It made me realize why I chose this path.
It definitely wasn’t easy to switch from offline to online to offline again, with no guarantee or certainty that things will get better in the future, because we still don’t know for how long we have to put up with the Coronavirus. But I’m sure and hopeful even, that no matter what happens, we’ll get through it. With everything that has gone down since our battle with COVID-19 began, we should be proud of ourselves for not giving up, for putting up a fight, for adjusting, for learning. Every effort counts!
-Gurbani Kaur (MAGAZINE TEAM, IVSA-INDIA)
VetQuest 