1) Veterinary medicine will make you stronger. Try having an angry client yelling obscenities in your face and telling you what a horrible person you are. I am not that heartless, uncaring person. But you telling me that I am has given me a thicker skin. It has pushed me to let things roll off my back. It has allowed me to forgive your anger and meet it head on with compassion.
2) Veterinary medicine will show you how to be fearless. Try wrangling a furious feline or a five pound ball of fur and teeth, also known as a chihuahua. You may come back covered in scratches and breathless. But you survived, didn’t you?
3) You will learn to multitask like the best of them. You will eat lunch in between fully booked appointments. You will write in charts, take radiographs on several patients and talk to owners on the phone while you draw blood on the next patient. You will make this look easy and you will do this before the doctor walks in with their morning coffee.
4) You will learn to cry. Whether its saying goodbye to a dog you’ve known since puppyhood or from the joy in watching the hit by car patient you have been nursing for weeks walk out the door. Tears will fall. You will let them. Then you will wipe your eyes and go and help the next patient.
5) You will learn to appreciate. Life is extremely fragile. You will see that life end to soon for many patients. You will see how important it is to hug the ones you love. You will see how it is necessary to be patient and forgive. Because no one is guaranteed another day or full recovery. So you will say what you feel and live every day to the fullest. You will work hard to turn back time, but realize how powerless we can be despite our best efforts.
Veterinary medicine changes us. It allows us to be the absolute best that we can be. None of us ever stop learning,evolving or growing. Though this job can take so much away from us, it also allows us to be the people we were meant to be. Everything we do in this field makes a difference. Sometimes to others, and sometimes to ourselves.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the DrAndyRoark.com editorial team.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jade is a licensed technician of 9 years who lives in Port Orchard, Washington. She enjoys emergency and critical cases, dentistry and creating a bond with her clients and team. During her off time she is busy keeping up with her two crazy Basenjis!
