The start of the year has been a really exciting time in my life. I hope 2013 is going to be much better than 2012 (which had its ups and downs). 2012 was great since I had a pretty lax schedule my senior year of college plus graduation, which could also be counted as bitter-sweet since I really miss seeing two of my wives, Megan and Jackie on a daily basis. On the downside, I lost my kitty, Nip, this summer. The pain is still there and she will always be remembered. I also did not get into vet school last year which did hurt, but honestly not as much as I thought it would. I had thought I would be devastated, but I wasn't. I have to admit, it has been nice just working and making some money. My boss did, however, invite me to start the veterinary technician program in a few weeks, which is awesome. I'll still get to learn more before I (hopefully) start vet school in the fall (which I'll go into more about here shortly) and I get to start performing vet tech duties at work like placing catheters and tubing patients. Best of all, the clinic I work at is paying for it all.
Now onto why I am hoping 2013 is going to be an awesome year. 2012 ended with me hearing from one of the veterinary schools I applied to, Missouri, for an interview. You cannot even imagine my excitement when I got that email. Plus, I wasn't even anticipating hearing that early from a school. Just this past weekend, I flew out to Columbia, Missouri for the interview. Lots of milestones that weekend, my first flight by myself, first taxi ride, first time getting my own hotel room, and first time flying at night (which was gorgeous!) As for the school, I think I wouldn't mind going out to Columbia if I had to. It is pretty far from home (14 hours according to Mapquest) but it really has that community feeling that I love just like my alma mater, Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. I, unfortunately, didn't get to see much if any of the actual city of Columbia at all. I got in at about 7pm the night before my interview and I was in the air by 12:30pm the next day. I just had a few short taxi rides to see the city, which was mostly just farmland.
As for my interview, I think that went really well. The bad part was that it was at 7:30 that morning and I had to wake up at 5:45 that morning to shower and dress nicely for it. Once I got there, I really wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be. The staff and student ambassadors welcomed me warmly and I chatted with them and a few other fellow interviewees while I was waiting. The actual interview itself was only 15 minutes long- I got asked lots of questions in regards to my lyme disease project that I did a few summers ago. One of the intervewers also threw out a few random questions about lyme disease. One I knew- why is it called lyme disease (since the first case was in lyme CT). The other, where did lyme disease originate from, I didn't know. I was honest about that and then they said it was from Europe. I was also asked about a little bit of research I did on beef cattle temperaments and my large animal vet experience which I felt like I had a good amount of (though not any of equine or of any exotics). One of the three intervewers asked me about my time I spent as an undergraduate anatomy lab teaching assistant. I loved doing that so I was happy to talk about it. I also informed them about my vet tech upcoming classes which I didn't get a chance to put on my application.
Needless to say, afterwards, I was very glad it was over. I want to say I did really well, I didn't stutter or was dishonest about anything. I acted like myself and tried to put my very best out to them. After the interview, I went on a tour of the school with one of the students who I'd been talking to. She was super helpful and very nice. The school seems very impressive as was the clinic. We even got to see a horse being prepped for some kind of surgery (probably colic). We couldn't see the actual surgery itself since the drapes were in the way, but it was still my first experience seeing any kind of large animal surgery.
I went back into the waiting room for interviews for about 30 more minutes and talked a little bit more to some students and others who were intervewing before I had to leave to go check out of my hotel and head to the airport. I did talk to one really nice lady who's daughter was intervewing. She actually went to Radford (which is about 30 minutes from Tech) and we talked about Blacksburg. Before I left she said 'Go Hokies!' and I couldn't resist to call back. She said she now lives in South Dakota.
My flights there (I had to go to Atlanta for a layover and then to Columbia out of Dulles) were alright. The first one I didn't have a single issue. The second we had a small mechanical issue that was resolved in 15 minutes. It was a really tiny plane (only 17 people were on it but there were lots of empty seats). I got to see the cities at night and it was just so beautiful. I only had a 2 hour layover when I was flying in. On the way back, we had to get some more fuel for the plane so that was a little delay. I had a 5 hour layover in Atlanta that time so I pretty much got to walk and see the entire airport looking for food and a good place to crash and watch episodes of Death Note to pass the time. Once I was finally on the plane, we had a delay leaving and getting in. Meanwhile, there was this poor girl who must have had some kind of mental disease that caused to her make these high pitched noises and do a strange sneeze-thing. I was sitting diagonally from her and she did it THE WHOLE FLIGHT I was so fed up with it by the time we landed. I know she couldn't help it... but you get to that point where it just gets in your head and you cannot get it out. I had my music turned up as loud as it could go I was playing my 3DS.
That night, my dad picked me up from the airport and I spent the night at his place since he lived 10 minutes from the airport and I still had an hour drive home. After being awake from 5:45 that morning until about 11:30 that night I was pretty wiped.
Now, if you are still reading I really commend you! I knew this would be a long first post but I never expected it would be this long! But, I'm not done yet. I still have yet to even mention the best news of this year, yet. I got word the day before I left for Missouri that I got an interview at VIRGINIA TECH!! I was so excited for this since this is the school I really want to go to. It is 3 hours from my home and I already spent 4 years of my life there for my undergrad. I was at work when I found out and trust me everyone in that building knew. My interview at Tech is on January 25th at noon. I'm going down the night before and going to go to this dinner they are having and then I will leave on Saturday the day after. I'll hopefully see some friends who are still down there, as well! This interview is situation based so there really is no way I can prep for it besides look up some current events (on the advice from a few friends who have interviewed there and got in). This will be the most important day of my life to date and I am really hoping all goes well. As for now, I am still waiting to hear from 4 more schools, NC State (who doesn't have interviews), Tufts in Mass, and Auburn and Tuskegee in Alabama. Who knows what that will bring for me as well. I should hear around the beginning of February about admission to Missouri.
Anyhow- thanks so much for reading and I hope I can post some more updates soon!
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