I've lost track of how many times or where I've said the same things over and over again so I'm just writing it here in case it's not already in this thread.
I'm not VERY non traditional, but I'm also 28. After undergrad in 2014 I worked on the Cape for a summer as a lifeguard and hostess to earn enough money to survive during an unpaid internship in Ramona, CA. I left for Ramona in October of that year and spent 6 months rehabbing/husbandry for 33 cats, 10 bobcats, 1 pygmy hippo, 2 mountain lions, 3 bears, and 1 coyote as well as rehab animals such as raptors, skunks <3 , opossums, reptiles, etc. After that internship I moved back to MA and did diamondback terrapin conservation on the Cape. Once terrapin season ended I stayed on to rescue cold-stunned sea turtles. By the time winter cold-stun ended, it was now 2016. Starting 2016 I began work at BU as an aquarist for medical research and animal science center. I also did an internship rehabbing the same sea turtles as well as New England seals at the National Marine Life Center. That ended in May 2016. After that internship I continued with my job at BU and come September or so did the NEWC course for the MA State Rehabbers License. Finished the course, passed the exam. Then it was 2017 and I was 25 and hit my quarter life crisis. I decided that I ultimately wanted to be a veterinarian and so after reaching out to about 75 vets, researchers, professors, and rehabbers asking for advice on how to reach my goals, it was recommended to me that I go back to school to increase my GPA. So I started a Masters Program at BU in 2018 while working full time, and I retook 5 of my pre-requisites. Also starting in 2018 I began shadowing veterinarians in equine, small animal, wildlife, laboratory and exotic. My Masters Degree ended in September 2020 and my manuscript was published in October. I finally left my job as an aquarist this past November to become a lab assistant in a rodent behavior lab where I collect data on the intuitive decision process and perform cranial surgery for CScope.
And outside of all my animal stuff I do a lot of photography (landscape, wildlife, and astrophotography) which is what I wrote my tufts essay on. I also do some woodworking (rarely, but my dad and I built my couch) and handy work around my parents house. I love puzzles and art so in my essays I wrote about how a veterinarian is more than just a doctor for animals but is an artist that uses the puzzles presented to them in the form of an animal and becomes an artist who understands structures, functions, and answers to make decisions that best solve the problems in an animals life.