Not Yet a Vet: Adventures of Veterinary School: August 2013

I am enjoying the final hours of my summer vacation...second year officially starts tomorrow at 9am! I am looking forward to continuing my education, but am certainly sad to see this summer draw to a close as it has been one of the best of my life so far. The places I've seen and the people I've met and the learning I've done have been life changing.

June and July were full of travel and hiking! I continued to explore the back country region surrounding Logan with my adventure buddy Kristen and of course Burton tagged along. Mid-June, I traveled to Ross Point, ID to attend the week long Veterinary Leadership Experience (VLE). VLE was a gathering of faculty and students from across the globe that's activities aimed to broaden the abilities of veterinary students' leadership potential. The networking capabilities were fantastic. I have a support group of phenomenal colleagues from across the nation as well as Canada and Australia! Later in June, I brought Kristen back to Reno with me to attend the Reno Rodeo (her first legitimate rodeo!). Rodeo is always one of my favorite Northern Nevada events! Guarantee it will bring me back every year. After the rodeo, I met Kristen and her friend Melinda up at Grand Teton National Park. (After our adventures in Zion NP earlier this summer, Kristen and I agreed that an annual pass to the NPs would be a good investment!). We spent the day hiking around, taking pictures and enjoying the gorgeous scenery.

For the Fourth of July, I brought Kristen to Colorado with me! I got to see my amazing family when we passed through Denver. We spent the holiday up in Dillon and relived my childhood of watching fireworks over the Frisco Marina at Lake Dillon Reservoir. And of course, we hiked while we were there! Kristen got to reach a new record elevation for hiking--12,500 ft! (Probably my record as well now that I think about it...) We also took a day to see Rocky Mountain National Park while we were in the area. Almost immediately after CO, Kristen and I hopped on separate planes and flew across the country to her home state of Connecticut. We spent two weeks hiking in the most ridiculous humidity imaginable. I got to see Tim again (even though he worked the majority of the time). He and Kristen (and the fam) showed me around New England and I had an absolute blast! As expected, I'm already hoping to go back sometime soon to see more. I flew back to UT from CT and immediately drove out to NorNev again for Christmas in July aka Night in the Country Music Festival (NITC). The festival falls around my birthday every year, so it's a really fun way to celebrate! Ryann, Heidy and Tara made it an amazing party! We saw Eli Young Band, Casey James, Randy Houser and Billy Currington. It was amazing! When we returned to Reno, I had a birthday dinner and my amazing best friend Kelsey drove all the way out from Sacramento to be there with me for a few hours! It had been more than a year since we'd seen each other, so it made for an awesome birthday present. I drove down to Las Vegas after NITC where I got to spend some much needed quality Daddy/Daughter time with the best pop a girl could ask for. We helped Marco and Tarin move into their new home (!!!). And we had a camping trip out to Gold Butte together, just the two of us. We sat for hours staring up at the sky watching for Perseid meteors together. I missed seeing my mom that week, but it was incredibly special to have so much time with my dad. After camping, I headed back up to Logan. I finally got to resettle in my house (after not having been there for the majority of the month of July).

As an ambassador, I had orientation responsibilities with the incoming class at the beginning of August. Then, I traveled back up to Ross Point, ID with the incoming class to mentor them at COLE. While there, I also got a chance to spend a few hours in the VTH at WSU. I spent my time on the large animal side. I got to do rounds, meet a couple of 4th years in their rotations and observe an orthopedic surgery on a horse that had a fracture in pastern 2 on one of it's rear legs. We returned from WA/ID just the other day in just enough time to rest up and re-settle for the start of school tomorrow.

It's shaping up to be quite the variable schedule. Literally no two weeks of class schedules are the same. The information is quite packed in this semester. But I say bring it on! This year has a lot to offer and I sure am looking forward to it.