3.5 weeks down in the semester, starting our fourth full week tomorrow.
Vet school so far isn't challenging as far as the information itself but in the sheer amount of time that you have to spend on it to absorb it all (or at least, enough to do okay on your exams). We go from 8 am until 3:30 to 5:00 depending on the day, then I usually head home, eat and chill out until 6:30, and study/read/prepare until 10:30. It's tiring, and you get really, really sick of looking at the same stuff over and over.
But it's still a LOT of fun and totally worth it.
Stress-level isn't too high for me at this point. I used to be a high-stress student in early undergrad but somewhere along the way I learned to just study as much as I could, learn as much as I could, and hope that everything falls in place. No tears or wringing of hands needed! I figure I'll do my best and either I'll know it or I won't - no point in freaking out over school work. BUT, there are definitely some very stressed and exhausted people in my class at this point who haven't adopted that mindset, and I anticipate some mental fractures later this semester if they don't learn to chill out a bit.
The most stressful part of the process for me isn't a drive to get great grades, ace everything, be the best, etc. The stess comes from going to class and actively trying to learn as much as possible for 8 hours a day then coming home and actively studying on your own for another 3 to 4 hours. And STILL not knowing everything you're supposed to after all that time and work. It's very draining to work that hard and that long and know that you're still not caught up.
Other than that, school really is fun. I'm starting to find that group of students that I can talk to really easily and joke around with, but everyone in our class is very approachable. No drama or high-school-ness so far and everyone respects everyone else. We're also very supportive of each other's learning; we are constantly receiving class-wide emails from other students with study guides, notes, and websites that we share with each other to supplement our studying. People socialize on weekends, study together, eat lunch together, etc. All good.
Also, I am one of those lucky students juggling a long distance relationship in addition to vet school, and so far with a month under our belt, it's been great. Granted, we were a five-hour drive apart for the past 14 months (as opposed to a flight now), so it's not anything new, but the stress of school hasn't affected us yet. We've been able to work out a schedule of visits that will work great. Basically, I wrote all of my exams and quizzes on a calendar and selected the weekends that I have minimal commitments the following weeks for visits - works out to about every third weekend or so. I've already flown out there once, and he's here this weekend. Which is why I'm up so early on a day off - I've been waking up at 6 or 7, studying for a few hours, then getting the sleeping boy out of bed to start the day. He wasn't supposed to visit this weekend...seeing as I have an anatomy and physiology exam this week...but he didn't want to waste the three-day opportunity. We'll see what happens!
So to all of you LDR peeps out there, have faith. So far, it's been a piece of cake!
You're so freaking busy with school, you don't even have time to miss each other!
Oh and Nyanko looks totally awesome and professionally pink haired in her official photo, and I look like I ate lead paint as a child and the lead paint won. Thanks for nothing, UCD photographer.
