“It is not too late, you can still be a dentist.” – John Little
My dad said these words to me as I was sitting beside him with my luggage packed, airplane ticket in hand. We were leaving to go to orientation for vet school. Knowing me, I probably responded with a glare, an eye roll, and resuming my self-absorbed thoughts. My dads words were not malicious. They were just trying to make sure that I knew he was there for me. I was walking into the unknown alone. I got wait listed at LSU SVM and early admission at Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine. Ross is fully accredited but located on the island of St. Kitts. So that means to get there – five hour drive to Dallas, flight to Miami, flight to Puerto Rico, and then flight to St. Kitts. I was walking away from my family, friends, and my then boyfriend (he later became my husband so he was important too). I was chasing a dream that my dad and my family did not understand at all. They are not exactly animal people. I mean we always had yard dogs growing up but half of the family is allergic to cats. Horses and cows are definitely not a part of their life. My dad got us rabbits one time and after my mom was done having a conniption about it, one of the dogs broke into the rabbit pen and that was the end of having rabbits.
Okay, where were we going with this again…. Right airport…leaving..So my dad is there trying to make sure that I knew that I had an out and that there was no shame in jumping off of the deep end.
I lept.
Head first.
I didn’t take the parachute.
Leaving made me grow up. It made me resilient and self reliant. The nearest friendly faces were people I had never met before now. They came from all over the world, different political, religious, and cultural beliefs but they were chasing the same dream as me. We wanted to be vets.
St. Kitts is a third world country for the most part unless you were the uber wealthy living in the tourist areas. There were rolling blackouts which meant you never could 100% guarantee that you had power available at all times every day. All groceries were brought in by boat and freshness was questionable at best. Everything was extremely expensive. I was a 21 year old living on student loans and definitely not living the tourist lifestyle.
If you talk to anyone who has done a doctorate program they will tell you that the amount of information and styding is insane. You are in class for 8 to 10 hours a day then you spend hours and hours studying. Ross at that time was pretty open about the situation of your original starting class was over 100 people but the graduating class was significantly less. We started with about 120 people. About 40 of the original class stayed together on track to graduation. We picked up about another 20 that had dropped into our class from the one above us. The way it worked was that if you failed one class then you had to repeat an entire semester with the class behind you. Which was a cost of around 30k and four months of being behind. If you failed two classes then you were kicked out of the program. Below a 70% or a C was failing. Conditions of living on the island, living situation, and home sickness meant that our class lost about 12 people before the first month was over. They did not fail academically, it was just so hard to be that far away.
In a weird way, family on St. Kitts is made of your classmates. You lean on each other for everything because you have to. I signed up to have a roommate – Jen. She was from Colorado. I had never met her but I prayed that she would not be crazy. Thankfully she became one of my best friends. She was in my wedding and I was in hers. We got married about two weeks apart on opposite sides of America and we were still there for each other.
School was one of the hardest and best times of my life. And I have no regrets. As people are leaving the veterinary profession in unprecedented rates, there are many people who spent a decade of their life trying to become a vet only to get there and realize that the uphill climb is not over. Not even close. Veterinarians are plagued often with the fact that their profession is their identity and having an angry client or losing a patient goes beyond affecting our emotions, it can rock us to the core of who we are.
So yes my dad was ultimately right…my life would have probably been an easier trajectory if I had opted for drilling on human teeth. But there is nothing more fulfilling to my soul to have a career where I get puppy snuggles every day, kitty cat head butts and helping people who love their pets.
