Back in June 2017, on a warm day I graduated. Yet this was not a normal graduation as I had just recieved my veterinary degree, this little piece of paper paid for with blood sweat and tears was the end of vet school journey. It was also the start of my real education, the burden of responsibility, and the ability to create my own treatment plans.
It gave me the ability to make decisions that would directly impact on animals, and their owners. That would make people happy, sad, and occasionally break them completely.
It gave me the responsibility for dealing with whatever came through the door, it also gave me the responsibility for finding options when finances were tight, or it was not possible to administer medication.
It gave me the start of my real education, the struggling to remember medication names, looking up dosages, wondering which medication was best and if it would actually work.
It gave me hard lessons, that nothing would appear as it does in a textbook, that multiple things would complicate things, and that sometimes there is just nothing that you can do.
It gave me sleepless nights, painful phonecalls, and the grief filled consultations.
However it also gave me the best job in the world. The excited owners with the new puppy or kitten, the 1 minute old puppy that I had just got breathing, the old dog that went peacefully over rainbow bridge, the tumour that would have killed if left, the previously painful dog that can play again. And the animal that was near deaths door that was pulled back with the right decision at the right time.
My first journey through vet school is done, I hope you enjoy my next journey as a newly graduated vet in general practice.
