RANT HERE thread

[supershorty]

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First phone call with a potential practice after vet school didn’t go great. Just didn’t feel like they wanted an intern, so back to the drawing board

Are you wanting to do a formal internship, or just have heavier mentorship as an early associate?

 

[honeypot999]

Are you wanting to do a formal internship, or just have heavier mentorship as an early associate?

It was a formal internship on their website. But they said if they made an internship position available I’d have to commit to doing a fellowship that’s 2 years long.

 

[Shiloh47]

I’m looking into clinics for “externship”-ish shadowing opportunities at potential areas I’d be interested in working post vet school during the summer between my 2nd & 3rd year but by god I do not know how people do it financially. I had to work full time all summer doing manual labor but would really like to gain more actual vet experience in the rural side of things I’m interested in. Problem is this takes time like taking 2 weeks off doing unpaid shadowing experience and makes keeping summer work more complicated. Idk I just don’t know how people have the time and money to get these cool experiences without being burdened by the constraints of needing to work to pay bills

 

[battie]

I’m looking into clinics for “externship”-ish shadowing opportunities at potential areas I’d be interested in working post vet school during the summer between my 2nd & 3rd year but by god I do not know how people do it financially. I had to work full time all summer doing manual labor but would really like to gain more actual vet experience in the rural side of things I’m interested in. Problem is this takes time like taking 2 weeks off doing unpaid shadowing experience and makes keeping summer work more complicated. Idk I just don’t know how people have the time and money to get these cool experiences without being burdened by the constraints of needing to work to pay bills

They use the loan money

 

[katiemcat]

They use the loan money

Yeah I remember eating the cost of my airbnbs (pain) and reaching out to friends of friends for housing

 

[couldhavebeenme]

Yeah I remember eating the cost of my airbnbs (pain) and reaching out to friends of friends for housing

I stayed for 2 weeks in a shack in the woods that had no running water/a literal outhouse 100 feet away, but it was like $60/night so I feel like I won. (Honestly it was fun, kinda like camping.)

 

[kitzsuna]

I’m looking into clinics for “externship”-ish shadowing opportunities at potential areas I’d be interested in working post vet school during the summer between my 2nd & 3rd year but by god I do not know how people do it financially. I had to work full time all summer doing manual labor but would really like to gain more actual vet experience in the rural side of things I’m interested in. Problem is this takes time like taking 2 weeks off doing unpaid shadowing experience and makes keeping summer work more complicated. Idk I just don’t know how people have the time and money to get these cool experiences without being burdened by the constraints of needing to work to pay bills

I am also wondering this. Also, what do I do with my pets at home? There’s a career/externship fair at my school next weekend but I only have a few places on my list because of location or type of work. Like hopefully if I do have to go out of state I can find someone local to take care of my pets??

 

[Shiloh47]

They use the loan money

Yeah, as someone with out of state tuition I find it hard justifying taking out more to pay for summer costs w/o working. Guess that’s just how it is

 

[Shiloh47]

I stayed for 2 weeks in a shack in the woods that had no running water/a literal outhouse 100 feet away, but it was like $60/night so I feel like I won. (Honestly it was fun, kinda like camping.)

Finding a campground was my first idea…water bottle shower anyone?
Car camping might not actually be a bad idea too

 

[apoptosis09]

I am also wondering this. Also, what do I do with my pets at home? There’s a career/externship fair at my school next weekend but I only have a few places on my list because of location or type of work. Like hopefully if I do have to go out of state I can find someone local to take care of my pets??

You may have to pay for house/pet sitting, but often students will trade pet/house sitting for each other while on clinics. Or take them to family if they are close enough.

 

[JaynaAli]

I had my parents keep my dog for a couple rotations I managed to schedule sequentially. I also got to take him to one...it was 10 hours from home and I was staying with strangers (who were friends of a friend of a friend), but they were professors (non vet med) and let me stay in their basement for three weeks for free AND bring the dog. But yeah, trading with classmates or paying an underclassman was pretty common.

I got pretty lucky on housing for rotations. Several were back at home where I could stay with my parents. That rotation at CSU I found that friend of a friend of a friend who let me stay...found that one just by asking a random girl I'd never met who was at my friend's house party if she knew anyone in Fort Collins. And she did know ag faculty there, and hooked me up with them. I left them a little money when I left (like $200 because I couldn't afford much) but they mailed it back to me. Another rotation I stayed with the clin path faculty at the school I was visiting...a week and a half with one lady and a week and a half with a different family. They let me stay for free. The only rotation I had to pay for housing was in Kalamazoo...I was supposed to stay with someone associated with the rotation there too, but their basement flooded and was uninhabitable so I had to scramble and stay at the sketchiest extended stay hotel in Kalamazoo (which is a pretty sketchy city at baseline, imo). 0/10 would not recommend but I survived. This was in early days before AirBNB was really a widespread thing.

There used to be a SAVMA rotation housing group on the book of faces, not sure if that's still a thing?

 

[kewpieketchup]

Over the last few weeks, I have just been struggling with comparing my life to my close friends' lives. I feel almost "left behind" in a way. One of my friends had a baby, the other got engaged, etc. Several of my close friends at vet school are engaged or married. I would not change being in vet school for the world, I love it here. But I just can't help but feel like my life is on pause while theirs are moving forward. I don't think it helps my own relationship is in shambles either. Idk, just really struggling with these emotions. I try not to compare because we are all on our own paths but sometimes it is hard.

 

[MixedAnimals77]

I stayed for 2 weeks in a shack in the woods that had no running water/a literal outhouse 100 feet away, but it was like $60/night so I feel like I won. (Honestly it was fun, kinda like camping.)

Please tell me this rotation was in Idaho 😂

 

[vampyrica]

all this talk of -ships and rotations has me biting my nails. i only get one summer off and i’ll be working at my gov internship for it because i have a required amount of hours to complete…

and then the summer between second and third year i start small clinical rotations at school. i guess i can only do outside externships during 4th year? gulp

 

[_rae_]

i guess i can only do outside externships during 4th year? gulp

The externship I got is for my fourth year. I have not gotten the chance to do a single externship outside of that because I’m also working. It’s okay if that’s how it turns out.

 

[thenontraveler]

Last night I had a potential apartment break in. I am okay and so is my cat. But things were moved around and doors I know I closed before I left for clinicals were standing open. Needless to say I did not stay in my apartment and I immediately got the locks changed today. But I just feel anxious about being there now. Like I had friends with me all day, but the instant they left. I did not want to be there alone anymore. This week I will be adding a ring doorbell and a door sensor. I hate this.

 

[supershorty]

i guess i can only do outside externships during 4th year? gulp

This is very common. It's not a big deal.
I only did externships as required in my 4th year and I chose locations based on where I knew I'd get to do things, not as an audition for ultimately working there, and I turned out just fine.

 

[katiemcat]

My kid was sleeping through the night for the last few months and last night he just decided to wake up every few hours for some reason?

I am v tired. He’s not though! At least I don’t work today

 

[katiemcat]

My kid was sleeping through the night for the last few months and last night he just decided to wake up every few hours for some reason?

I am v tired. He’s not though! At least I don’t work today

Oh I guess he was just mentally preparing to full on crawl

 

[_rae_]

Drive-by outside of my apartment this morning. Automatic weapon, no one was hurt thank god. We moved from our last place because someone fired shots in our parking lot. Is this just the normal? I grew up in an area with almost no gun restrictions and lots of hunting and we never had this. I lived in Boston for three years and never heard a shot from my neighborhood or the area I worked in. Minnesota it feels like it’s every week.

 

[soupshark]

Drive-by outside of my apartment this morning. Automatic weapon, no one was hurt thank god. We moved from our last place because someone fired shots in our parking lot. Is this just the normal? I grew up in an area with almost no gun restrictions and lots of hunting and we never had this. I lived in Boston for three years and never heard a shot from my neighborhood or the area I worked in. Minnesota it feels like it’s every week.

I would say so. I think it's uncommon to live somewhere with no gun violence in the US.

Also, Boston is one of the safest cities in the US so that's not surprising to me.

 

[_rae_]

I would say so. I think it's uncommon to live somewhere with no gun violence in the US.

Also, Boston is one of the safest cities in the US so that's not surprising to me.

I don’t think it’s the gun violence that surprises me. I think it’s my proximity being measured in yards instead of miles. Obviously my ideal is nobody experiencing it, but I’m definitely tired of experiencing it myself. I don’t want to move again before I graduate. I don’t want to worry about what’s waiting for me when I move for my rotating. I think I had the privilege of living in areas that allowed me to say “I would never be where that happened” until now. It’s a weird thing to confront.

 

[battie]

I think it's uncommon to live somewhere with no gun violence in the US.

It's more common than you would think. 44k gun deaths in the US with most being self-harm (62%), approx. 3 million US deaths per year.

MN has some of the lowest numbers.

Granted, that doesn't capture stats of people harmed but not killed by gun violence. That number seems to be in the 75-85k per year. So somewhere in the ball park of ~130k US individuals physically directly harmed by gun violence.

What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S.

The number of gun deaths in the U.S. fell for the third consecutive year in 2024 but remained among the highest annual totals on record.

www.pewresearch.org

Don't mean to bring up the stats to be argumentative. But it's how I deal with my existential dread for Child Bats on a daily basis. I compare it to car safety. If something is more dangerous than putting him in the car to go to the coffee shop, it's a no go. I'm a proponent of many / most gun restrictions. We don't have guns and wouldn't without taking classes; parents have their guns behind two locked doors with separate keys when we visit; etc.

 

[_rae_]

Wow. That number seems SHOCKINGLY lower than I thought it was going to be.

 

[katiemcat]

It's more common than you would think. 44k gun deaths in the US with most being self-harm (62%), approx. 3 million US deaths per year.

MN has some of the lowest numbers.

Granted, that doesn't capture stats of people harmed but not killed by gun violence. That number seems to be in the 75-85k per year. So somewhere in the ball park of ~130k US individuals physically directly harmed by gun violence.

What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S.

The number of gun deaths in the U.S. fell for the third consecutive year in 2024 but remained among the highest annual totals on record.

www.pewresearch.org

Don't mean to bring up the stats to be argumentative. But it's how I deal with my existential dread for Child Bats on a daily basis. I compare it to car safety. If something is more dangerous than putting him in the car to go to the coffee shop, it's a no go. I'm a proponent of many / most gun restrictions. We don't have guns and wouldn't without taking classes; parents have their guns behind two locked doors with separate keys when we visit; etc.

I think they probably mean gun violence not necessarily gun deaths

 

[couldhavebeenme]

Please tell me this rotation was in Idaho 😂

It was actually outside Corvallis for a rotation at OSU 😆

 

[battie]

I think they probably mean gun violence not necessarily gun deaths

That's why I included the extra 75-85k people injured per year as well. There's no way to count the number of people indirectly harmed (ex. of people living in areas with higher rates of gun violence who themselves never encounter a gun related event).

 

[katiemcat]

That's why I included the extra 75-85k people injured per year as well. There's no way to count the number of people indirectly harmed (ex. of people living in areas with higher rates of gun violence who themselves never encounter a gun related event).

I would say a lot of people are indirectly harmed.

I don’t like to use this as an argument - but my suburb home town had 0 murders annually usually until my high school was shot up. My siblings both have debilitating PTSD from watching people die, even if they weren’t physically harmed.

People are held up with guns, and aren’t harmed physically, but they are mentally.

I’m not trying to fear monger - but the harm of gun violence definitely spreads far beyond death or even injury.

 

[couldhavebeenme]

Finding a campground was my first idea…water bottle shower anyone?
Car camping might not actually be a bad idea too

There is a FB group called Externship Housing Locator and from that group I stayed 1 night at an OSU student's apartment for free after my rotation ended bc her roommate was out of town. I also let a student from UPenn stay at my apartment in Pullman for 2 weeks while I was at my OSU rotation. She paid me $300 to offset the cost of my AirBNB so all-in-all a pretty good deal for us both.

 

[battie]

Wow. That number seems SHOCKINGLY lower than I thought it was going to be.

I think part of it is exposure bias, ya know? With the advent of the 24 hour news cycle in the 90s to 00s, it feels we're surrounded by gun violence at all times, particularly when we compare ourselves to other countries (which is true when other countries don't allow anyone but specific people to carry firearms).

It's stuff like constant exposure to negative events that was part of my giving up social media. Gun violence drives views, which drives commenting, which drives engagement, which drives ad revenue. Which is absolutely gross to me.

 

[soupshark]

That's why I included the extra 75-85k people injured per year as well. There's no way to count the number of people indirectly harmed (ex. of people living in areas with higher rates of gun violence who themselves never encounter a gun related event).

Yea the issue I have with the statistics is events that go unreported, the distribution of people across the US (a town of 500 in rural America will have less gun violence than a major city with 1mil+ people), and the people indirectly affected by gun violence. I grew up in a neighborhood in Chicago afflicted with gang and gun violence, and I was negatively affected by it every day whether or not a shooting happened that day. That can't be counted in a stat. It's a privilege to live somewhere where you feel safe and like there is no threat of gun violence

 

[battie]

I would say a lot of people are indirectly harmed.

I don’t like to use this as an argument - but my suburb home town had 0 murders annually usually until my high school was shot up. My siblings both have debilitating PTSD from watching people die, even if they weren’t physically harmed.

People are held up with guns, and aren’t harmed physically, but they are mentally.

I’m not trying to fear monger - but the harm of gun violence definitely spreads far beyond death or even injury.

I don't disagree. My sister was in the Aurora theater shooting with my ex's sister, who was actually shot. My sister died by suicide 6 years later in part secondary to her PTSD. My ex's sister attempted suicide two years after the event (doing great now, just got married in the last year or so).

My position isn't that there isn't harm. My position is that we as a society needs to put things into context on 1) population level and 2) on an individual level. If I didn't do that, I would have to be heavily medicated with anti-anxiolytics to function. I probably would never have had children.

 

[katiemcat]

I don't disagree. My sister was in the Aurora theater shooting with my ex's sister, who was actually shot. My sister died by suicide 6 years later in part secondary to her PTSD. My ex's sister attempted suicide two years after the event (doing great now, just got married in the last year or so).

My position isn't that there isn't harm. My position is that we as a society needs to put things into context on 1) population level and 2) on an individual level. If I didn't do that, I would have to be heavily medicated with anti-anxiolytics to function. I probably would never have had children.

I’m so sorry to hear that. I’m very passionate about gun ownership reform.

 

[battie]

I’m so sorry to hear that. I’m very passionate about gun ownership reform.

Me too! I feel the three of us probably agree on the majority of the details that comes with gun violence and probably even how to mitigate it.

 

[RTC19]

I’m so sorry to hear that. I’m very passionate about gun ownership reform.

I feel the same. Domestic violence too. My mom and I had to go so far as to get an order of protection in order to get guns away from my brother when he was violent towards me and my mom while psychotic. As soon as it expired, he was required to get them straight back. I talked to a lawyer and he essentially told me it is extremely difficult to get guns away from a person, even if they are not making good choices with them. I wonder how many of these mass shooters had a teacher or a roommate or a family member who was concerned and no one could do anything. This is in my blue state with relatively strict gun laws.

 

[katiemcat]

I feel the same. Domestic violence too. My mom and I had to go so far as to get an order of protection in order to get guns away from my brother when he was violent towards me and my mom while psychotic. As soon as it expired, he was required to get them straight back. I talked to a lawyer and he essentially told me it is extremely difficult to get guns away from a person, even if they are not making good choices with them. I wonder how many of these mass shooters had a teacher or a roommate or a family member who was concerned and no one could do anything. This is in my blue state with relatively strict gun laws.

That is literally insane.I'm so sorry that happened.

 

[overcastkidjuno]

Idk I just don’t know how people have the time and money to get these cool experiences without being burdened by the constraints of needing to work to pay bills

Hugs from someone else who has also really struggled with this. It's because so many people in vet school come from a privileged background and have no concept of what it's like to be working class. People constantly act baffled when I say I need to spend all summer working to pay my tuition and when I decline coming out to most of the extracirricular events / club stuff because I need to save money. They tell me I should just ask my parents for money or take extra money "out of my loans".

 

[KCgophervet]

Drive-by outside of my apartment this morning. Automatic weapon, no one was hurt thank god. We moved from our last place because someone fired shots in our parking lot. Is this just the normal? I grew up in an area with almost no gun restrictions and lots of hunting and we never had this. I lived in Boston for three years and never heard a shot from my neighborhood or the area I worked in. Minnesota it feels like it’s every week.

Where are you living? I only ask because I've lived in various areas around the Twin Cities since 2009 (south Minneapolis, west St Paul, western suburbs) (minus 3 years living in Chicago for residency) and I have never heard a shot from any of my homes/neighborhoods. I say this not to diminish your lived experience, but just to say you might be incredibly unlucky with your housing locations for some reason.

Obviously you don't have to answer that question, but my 3 years in Chicago were much more anxiety inducing in terms of crime and gun violence than I've ever experienced here in the cities.

 

[_rae_]

Where are you living? I only ask because I've lived in various areas around the Twin Cities since 2009 (south Minneapolis, west St Paul, western suburbs) (minus 3 years living in Chicago for residency) and I have never heard a shot from any of my homes/neighborhoods. I say this not to diminish your lived experience, but just to say you might be incredibly unlucky with your housing locations for some reason.

Obviously you don't have to answer that question, but my 3 years in Chicago were much more anxiety inducing in terms of crime and gun violence than I've ever experienced here in the cities.

I used to live at The Kendrick off Energy Park Drive in Como. That I truly believe was a one off; those people were evicted not long before we left.

Now I live between Summit University and Summit Hill. My neighbors themselves are great. Lots of kids on my block, young working couples, and some lifers who grew up there. My neighbor was telling me this was much more commonplace a few years ago. She had to have all the windows in her car replaced two or three years ago due to a shoot out that moved from end of the block to the other. I will say St. Paul has been one of the most block-by-block cities I’ve ever been in.

 

[KCgophervet]

I used to live at The Kendrick off Energy Park Drive in Como. That I truly believe was a one off; those people were evicted not long before we left.

Now I live between Summit University and Summit Hill. My neighbors themselves are great. Lots of kids on my block, young working couples, and some lifers who grew up there. My neighbor was telling me this was much more commonplace a few years ago. She had to have all the windows in her car replaced two or three years ago due to a shoot out that moved from end of the block to the other. I will say St. Paul has been one of the most block-by-block cities I’ve ever been in.

I'm just so sorry that that has been your experience. In my current house we've had packages left alone on the front step for a week while we were on vacation and accidentally left the door unlocked over a weekend and had no issues. It's wild how variable it can be.

 

[dew5]

Anyone else struggle with the whole making friends in vet school? It’s only 6-ish weeks into the semester, but it’s been a long time since I’ve had to “start over” and make new connections. Maybe I’m just in my feels with it being my birthday and having no plans (aside from studying for a histology exam). Just hoping to hear it gets better? Making new friends was really at the bottom of my list of anticipatory struggles with moving across the country. Like, I’m in my 30’s and have plenty of what are now long distance friends, why do I care so much?? But I suppose you don’t really know until you’re in it. Sorry to pop in with another rant, it feels easier to voice it here than to concern friends and family back home with the lonesome thoughts and feels.

 

[breezywonton]

Anyone else struggle with the whole making friends in vet school? It’s only 6-ish weeks into the semester, but it’s been a long time since I’ve had to “start over” and make new connections. Maybe I’m just in my feels with it being my birthday and having no plans (aside from studying for a histology exam). Just hoping to hear it gets better? Making new friends was really at the bottom of my list of anticipatory struggles with moving across the country. Like, I’m in my 30’s and have plenty of what are now long distance friends, why do I care so much?? But I suppose you don’t really know until you’re in it. Sorry to pop in with another rant, it feels easier to voice it here than to concern friends and family back home with the lonesome thoughts and feels.

i'm in my second year and i still struggle. it seems most people already found their group so it's hard for me to find people that i vibe with. i'm naturally very quiet and introverted and always had issues connecting with people. people have told me to start slow like asking to join a group for lunch, then tag along when they make other plans.. i don't really good advice because i'm still trying to figure that out myself, but you're not alone!

 

[dew5]

i'm in my second year and i still struggle. it seems most people already found their group so it's hard for me to find people that i vibe with. i'm naturally very quiet and introverted and always had issues connecting with people. people have told me to start slow like asking to join a group for lunch, then tag along when they make other plans.. i don't really good advice because i'm still trying to figure that out myself, but you're not alone!

I totally get that. Thank you for sharing. I remember you gave me a lot of good info about UTCVM back when I was deciding between schools. Had I ended up going there, I’d like to think we would’ve become fast friends ❤️

 

[Stroganoff]

Fire the 1st lawyer and hire an estate/probate lawyer who knows what they're doing. You aren't crazy, you just need an actual expert to help you.

I originally pushed back a few days ago when I said this:

Thank you for this! It's still on the table, but she replied to my e-mail frustrations today with some [legal strategy things] and inside I'm thinking to myself "Friggin finally! That's what I've wanted this whole time!" So lots of typing tonight and gathering evidence and quotes and proof of lies so she can do her thing.

So can't replace this lawyer at the moment since I want this [thing] to happen to get us more information.

Because I thought she was hinting at doing the motion with the court and it gave me hope. But her recent e-mail going, "well if we don't even know what bank the CDs were at, we can't do anything. In my experience, asking the court for stuff but saying 'money is missing but we don't know where' will get denied." It made me feel like I was absolutely crazy because she made it seem like I never gave her that back in June!

And she routinely doesn't reply to e-mails for weeks at a time. This feels wrong in my gut, but I don't know what is right vs. wrong. It just feels wrong to not reply.

So I watched the video I made for her in June. I mentioned "ABC Bank" 5 to 10 times in that video, including showing the actual check from that bank and talking about which branch I went to and why for my own safety. And showed in the video an e-mail with the Bank highlighted in yellow that also talked about CDs (PLURAL) and I also said in that video with spoken word "CDs" (plural).

So I proved to myself that I wasn't crazy and DID in fact clearly mention the bank name an unbelievable amount of times with a video of the check with the bank in huge font and a yellow highlighted e-mail from my relative lying about the CDs and she also has a copy of these e-mails.

1. She billed me for watching the video. Did she actually watch it???
2. She billed me for reviewing the e-mails that were highlighted. Did she??

Because this points to utter stupidity and brain function to me. I can't in good faith find any other reason. Because it wasn't like I was unclear in my communication or said it too fast. It's said slowly and repeatedly in both oral (spoken) voice and also visually by showing the check and also in written form in the e-mails.

So no matter how long I try to figure out why she said she has no idea which bank it is, I'm still left empty-handed and confused. I want to send all this in an e-mail to her and ask her to put herself in my shoes and understand how I would be confused and to explain what I did wrong or what SHE did wrong in basic comprehension.

Because she also requested checking and savings statements (why???? there's no issue there) and spent time going through them and e-mailing me "nothing fishy in there. Sorry to give you bad news." It just feels like I'm dealing with 4th grade reasoning, and I don't know how to politely ask her why she's so inept and to please explain herself.

Because maybe I did something wrong.

I also don't understand how I complain she doesn't answer questions, then she bills me for "reviewing past communications" and then saying she didn't see any questions. It makes me want to scream in frustration because it just feels gaslighty and denying reality. And it makes me feel like she's not working for me but against me.



I sent a frustrating e-mail to their Client Services department -- who says they want all clients to have a good experience! -- and they didn't even reply with any warmth. They just went coldly, "To be clear, are you terminating services with ___ Law Firm?" expecting me to answer yes/no. How is this good customer service consistent with the very words printed on their website? It's just jarring.

Re: your initial comment

Fire the 1st lawyer and hire an estate/probate lawyer who knows what they're doing. You aren't crazy, you just need an actual expert to help you.

I've since learned the past week or so and from talking to other forums that there's a difference between generic "estate, probate, trust, will" lawyers who only do cookie-cutter stuff and "fiduciary litigation with trusts, probate, etc" lawyers. Basically the first group only do basic things and make money, then done. The latter focus on if a fiduciary is doing illegal things or unethical things and holding them accountable.

So that's what I'm specifically shopping for.

Hope this helps anyone here who ever deals with a violent possible narcissist or possible psychopath in charge of an estate and to shop specifically for a "fiduciary litigation" lawyer.

Wish me luck. I'm still looking for someone good who can take me. It's not easy, especially 1000 miles away in a different state.



Edited to Add: Someone on another forum had the same issue with months going by and their lawyer asking repetitive questions and not grasping basic details (almost like they just speed read and don't absorb information). They complained to the founding partner of the law firm and he was understanding and said the rest is on the house/free and they got their entire case covered and resolved.

So I might send a polite e-mail to the founding partner. Because both my attorney and Client Services didn't really help.