I can’t believe I’ve finished my last week at Troy Veterinary Services. In the past eight weeks I have felt part of the Troy family, I have learned from them so much!
Dr. Paula was an incredible mentor from the very first moment; every minute I spent with her was a new opportunity to learn. She could make a learning experience from every appointment, even from those that seemed to be pretty straightforward vaccine appointments. I loved her passion for our profession. I will be forever grateful for her mentorship, her passion, and her support during my externship. Dr. Paula thank you for allowing me to be a part of your Troy family and thank for being you!
Dr. Stephanie has an innate ability to teach and she had no problem taking time out of her day to sit down with me and go over cases, look up information on textbooks, and even print articles the night before so I had the required knowledge for procedures being performed the following day. Thank you Dr. Stephanie for every minute you took away from your busy day to put into my education.
Dr. Marlah’s personality and positive attitude was always incredible, even late at night on emergency calls. It was under her guidance that I completed my first solo surgery (a cystotomy on my own cat), she gave me a sense of security and confidence that I will not forget. Thank you Dr. Marlah for helping me believe in my own abilities.
How much I learned from the veterinary technicians is unbelievable. My experience at Troy would have never been the same if it wasn’t for them! In addition to all the technical skills they guided me through, they always made me feel part of the team. Like I said in one of my previous posts; not only they are the heart of the clinic, but they play a vital role in helping train future veterinarians. Rayna, thank you for your incredible energy, for letting me steal your spot on horse calls, for getting excited and happy with my little milestones. Sherri, thank you for your patience when veins were hiding from me and with all the “how do I” for infinity. Erin, thank you for being so supportive, for pushing me at the beginning to get appointments started, for your sincerity. To all of you thank you for your humour, jokes and loving sarcasm; I will miss each one of you! To Janet, Andrea and Sam, thank you for everything you do behind the scenes to allow room for an extern student! To Jack and Ava thank you for always making me smile!
Everyone that crosses our paths can have an impact in our present and our future, everyone at Troy made an impact on my life...the past eight weeks have made me not only a better future veterinarian, but a better person!
To my family, the biggest gratitude because I would not be here today if it wasn’t for you! And because the past eight weeks were amazing because I had your support! To my husband who has believed in me and pushed me to keep going during hard times; for being the most amazing father to our children, because knowing that they couldn’t be in better hands allowed me to spend extra hours at the clinic. To my children, thank you for getting excited when I came home to share my experiences; for being so responsible at school and understanding that study sessions/help had to be either very early in the morning before I left for the clinic or later in the evening when I came back; for being two amazing young men! To my niece, thank you for all your help with the boys and being home while I completed my externship!
To everyone that took the time to read my posts, thank you!! I hope that you enjoyed learning a bit about what goes on the life of an extern student. One of the biggest motivators for me joining the externship blog project was to hopefully inspire someone out there to follow their dreams or as I call it “the ideal destination”! So to all of you who are thinking about choosing a different career, going back to school, enrolling in those lessons you always wanted, whatever it is that you want “your ideal destination” to be; go for it! It is not always an easy road you’ll have to travel, but as you get closer you’ll realize that it was worth it! That every step of the way was a learning experience; that every difficulty you faced made you wiser; that for every fall there was an opportunity to become stronger; that every detour you had to take was an opportunity to see the world with other eyes and broaden your horizons. It can be challenging, but at the end of the day being able to wake up every morning to do what you love is the best feeling in the world...and my friend, you do deserve to experience that every day of your life!