How do YOU prioritize?

Recently I have felt like I can't decide how to prioritize my life.  Obviously it centers around school.  But there are many different aspects to vet school.  Committees, clubs, externships, volunteering, applications for summer trips, scholarships, and figuring out what you are actually going to do when you graduate.  I feel like this last topic is on my mind a lot lately and then everything else stems from it. 

Grades are important.  Obviously.  But, its hard sometimes to judge just how important.  Lets take my current dilemma for example:  tonight.  (Lets preemptively say I could have been more productive over break, but that's now water under the bridge).  I get home around 6pm, eat dinner, make some tea, and sit down at my desk with my trusty laptop (my life).  And I think, well next week I have 3 finals (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), and there is one of the finals that I really need to do well on.  So thats great.  Good plan.  Let's start studying.  Oh wait.  I have 2 different summer applications due this week.  Crap.  Okay, so one of them is this really awesome opportunity but only 10 students from all the students who apply from ALL the vet schools are chosen.  So my application better be bad ass, right?  Well that requires research.  So I research, for about an hour and a half.  What are they looking for, who do they want, what do they do?  I even read some papers, ha.  But then you have to convince them in 150 words or less.  Double crap.  So I write down a bunch of stuff and get this one paragraph I think is pretty decent, 208 words.  You get the idea.  So I decide after 2 hours I should send a copy to my parents. 

Now lets move on, I can study now right?  Wrong.  So I move onto a fundraising project that I put off, and that takes me about another hour and I didn't even finish it.  Okay, theres always tomorrow at lunch...

So now I think, well I have had a raging sore throat for like the last 3 hours, so should I go to bed?  Nope.  Another summer application.  This one for a project in Honduras that I didn't get picked for last year, but some of my friends went on and it sounded pretty amazing, so I pull that one up and start writing.  Not as bad, there aren't any word limits, so I work on that one for about another hour.  Review it tomorrow and submit and hope for the best.

But now I should really go to bed.  Poop.  This means I have been very productive for the last 4 hours but I haven't actually done any school work.  So this is where I have to figure out how to prioritize.  I will undoubtedly feel guilty tomorrow when my friends talk about the studying they got done last night and I'll feel behind.  But that's the nature of vet school.  And tomorrow I will do some studying, hopefully, and maybe feel more caught up.

I think so much about what I am going to do with my life when I graduate and it makes me motivated to find projects for the summer, because I feel more and more like its the life experience and skills you gain and people you meet who will help shape your future, not how many A's you got in vet school.  But when you are surrounded by some of the best and brightest in the world and you get a B here and there, you feel like a slacker, or at least I do.  And sometimes I feel like I am surrounded by people who know exactly what they want to do when they walk out of here with a diploma, and I feel like I am still trying to figure that out.  And sometimes that makes me feel insecure, because I feel like a lesser student or veterinary professional because I signed up for one thing that I am not sure I really want to do everyday for the rest of my life.  Why is it that sometimes changing your mind feelsl like the scariest thing in the world?  Like you are lettting down the people you once told you were going to do one thing, when really if you don't follow your heart the only person you are letting down is yourself. 

So then that leads me to thinking of a string of more emails I need to write to find out who can help direct me to opportunities in what I WANT to do.  Which, interestingly enough I am not entirely sure of.  We'll save that little tanget for another blog.  I think it might be a long one.

So I guess tonight I will go to bed.  Try to save my health.  And try to wake up early and work on some studyage.  Oh wait I have to go grocery shopping.  Haha.  Someday I will get my life re-organized, get back to the gym, back to calling my friends, back to keeping up on my emails.  That day will come: in 9 days that is.  When this quarter will be over!  Then I can spend winter break stressing over how much experience I can fit into my summer...

Here are a few more light-hearted photos from my recent trip home :)

Good night everyone, hope you are better at prioritizing than me :)

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I have just returned from a journey of epic proportions! On Wednesday my family and I flew to Vermont and we returned today. That's a 3 day trip to the east coast, if you thought it couldn't be done, think again. Woke up at 4am on Wednesday, flew to Chicago, then to Manchester, NH, where we rented a car and drove to Vermont. We arrived in Vermont about 7pm their time, so 4pm west coast time; do the math, thats 12 hours of travel time. Rough.

But we made it, were greeted by lovely faces and suprised Grandma who didn't know we were coming (she knew my Dad was coming, but not the rest of us). We had some dinner, caught up a bit, and then cousin Tom and Dave and I went to Molly's, a bar/restaurant in Hanover, NH, just across the Connecticut River, and had some 2nd dinner (the first dinner was the only food Dave and I had eaten all day, besides "plane" crackers in the shape of planes on the plane haha) and margaritas :)

Then we went to a house Cousin Tom was housesitting for and watched a movie called "Black Dynamite." Probably one of the most ridiculous films I have ever seen. Basically plot revolving around making fun of all movies from the 70's, the Black Panthers, drugs, sex, violence. You dig?

Thanksgiving Day was lovely. Very cold, refreshing if you will. I got to watch some of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, possibly one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving. What more could you ask for? Music, dancing, Christmas spirit all around, SANTA!, and the Rockettes!

We played some mad Scrabble with Grandma, she still kicks everyone's butts! There was some football thrown around, pie baking, food making, singing in the kitchen. Dogs playing. Family bonding. Just wonderful. We ate, we ate, and we ate. Then we had food comas. Then we ate pie. More relatives came for pie, so that was nice too.

Then Cousin Tom, Sam, Dave and I went to the housesitting house and played salad bowl (a very fun game for all ages, if you want the details, let me know), and then some of their high school friends came over, and then we all watched "Three Ninjas" which if you didn't watch as a small child, you probably should do it now. Basically the Karate Kid, but with 3 kids, 1 Chinese Grandpa, and a fight against a powerful tycoon who used to be said Grandpa's partner in Ninja. Basically awesomeness.

And then this morning we had breakie, and then we hit the road. The weather this morning was a "wintry mix", the roads were icy and it was quite chilly! But all planes were a go, although we flew to Phoenix first, which I don't think any of us were prepared for how long that flight was, so we were all very ready to get home.

And who was here to greet us? Margie poo! She was very happy to have her pack home :)

Now back to reality. Well maybe. Break is still technically 2 days longer. Maybe a Christmas tree Sunday?

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Life Update

Currently:
Listening to Mumford&Sons radio on Pandora. Song is The Present by Hem. Never heard of it!

Wearing all CPET sweats, they're so comfy! Annnnd slipper socks, obvis.

In bed. Haha. Slept 2 hours last night on a friends couch as a "break" from studying (4am-6am). ROUGH. But how is it one can keep functioning on so little sleep? The human body surely is amazing! Now I am going to crash while watching "Love Actually."

Found out about a cool photo shoot opportunity in beautiful Golden Gate Park while I was sending emails to photographers for a fundraiser for Mercer. http://www.tinywaterblog.com/
Scroll down to where it talks about mini holiday photoshoots. I am going to try to get in on it!

My best friend is an AMAZING writer and she has the coolest blog:http://aacker02.wordpress.com/
Its pretty cool. She lives in Ecuador. With her husband and their dog. And she is getting her master's in Anthropology. And she can write! Check it out if you are interested in funny memoirs of a gringa living in Quito (okay I am the gringa, I think she is an Ecuadorian that just happens to have lots of blonde curls).

One of my other besties is having an important job interview tomorrow! She is an amazing conversationalist and is so passionate about her work, I know she is going to rock it! Good luck my fellow fish-tank friend!

Well due to my current sleep deprivation, I am off to bed.

Nighty night!

I will try to be more inspirational, etc soon. When I have more functioning brain cells :)

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Vrrrooom

Good evening ladies and gentlemen
For your entertainment purposes, I bring you.... leaf blower 101, vet school edition.
Ridiculousness ensues.

These are just a few "choice" photos, a little humor for your week.
Happy Thursday!

Annnnd, for your musical culture, here is a song from the one and only Stan Rogers.  I like to call it my fisherman music.  In all seriousness, he has an incredible voice and I love the instrumentals.  And who doesn't love a song that tells a story as sweet as this?
If you listen closely, you can hear him say in the beginning "This is for my wife" :)

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ChaCha! chachachacha!

Greetings earthlings!
Life update: Halloween party, so fun! Too much fun? Never! I was a crossing guard, I think the costume turned out pretty well if I do say so myself!
Halloween itself was spent studying, but we had about 4 groups of trick-or-treaters, not including myself (I HAD to use my oh-so-cool trick-or-treating bag, see pic below), and we had a study party, so it wasn't too bad :)

Exams, well, they are still coming...
Pig was good this morning, much friskier than normal, so we'll see how riding goes :)

I went on a spontaneous road trip to SF on Monday with a friend to pick up a bike he bought on ebay, it was quite fun! I learned how to fill my tires with air, the weather was PERFECT, the Giants won the World Series, overall it was fantastic!

I brought ChaCha home tonight for the first sleep over! My friends call her ChaChachachachacha... etc, and it keeps getting faster, I guess you have to be there to know what I mean. She is doing quite well, I made her a "bed" with towels, blankets, and sheets (all I had) and gave her a bone and a toy. She seems to like being at home a lot. And she got to play with my roommate's puppy which is very funny to watch. ChaCha is very animated with her paws when she plays and they just run around, tumble, and generally have a great time!

Must get back to, I mean start studying now! Big Pathology exam Monday, eek!

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