My Day Off

Wednesday is my day off from Two Notch and Pet Friends and I take this day to work at the pre-professional office at the University of South Carolina. I get to counsel and advise students interested in medicine, specifically veterinary medicine. I love my second job! I remember struggling on my own to figure out what path to take while here (biology vs chemistry - I have to admit, instead of making a decision I just did both) and how to pick and successfully apply to veterinary schools. I was really lucky and had some great friends that had been through the process and could help, but I always thought there should be someone here at USC to offer support. Now I can be that person and it is a great feeling. Being a vet is the best job in the world and adding wonderful people to the profession is a great blessing. Plus, as the pre-vet program here at USC continues to grow, more students will pick USC over Clemson :) As a whole the veterinary field has changed from a majority of men in large animal/farm medicine to a majority of women in small animal medicine. I came out of the womb knowing I wanted to be a vet, but my dad was a physician so even though he could share his love of medicine, he didn't know much about my field of choice. In order to try to learn more I read all of James Harriot's accounts of life as a vet and I imagined that was how life would be for me - house calls at all hours, pulling a calf in the snow, surgeries in the field, and an occasional sick barn cat or yard dog. As an aside, that is actually why I stopped eating meat all those years ago, I figured if I was going to be working with large animals then it wasn't very nice to eat my patients. I don't miss meat and I love all animals too much to want to have them for dinner, so I have never gone back to eating meat even though I don't have too many food animals for patients! Just an occasional pig or chicken. Anyway, my life as a veterinarian and the field in general is very different from the days of James Harriot. There are less and less large animal vets, the field is becoming more specialized, and the majority of graduating vets are females.

I try to open the students' eyes to the many opportunities a degree in veterinary medicine offers them. Even if they pick a different path than medicine, I think it is good for people to gain a better understanding of all sorts of professions. The world today seems to have blinders on half the time and people miss out on the world around them. My advice to anyone is to always keep an open mind, an open heart, and take in as much of the world around you as you can. You can always learn something from another person or experience and you should strive to never stop learning.