Final week

Well, this past week has been absolutely crazy with trying to prepare for exams and finishing up classes. Finals week has started and you can almost sense that everyone is on edge. Reflecting on the past few months a lot has happened this semester. School is obviously what has taken priority, but I have also learned so much more than just things from my textbooks. I have learned that being an adult and making adult decisions really aren't as great as its cracked up to be when you're younger. Becoming more and more responsible is required and I feel like I've grown so much as a person these past few months. Applying to vet school, waiting for the results, trouble with dealing with classmates and others in my life has taught me more than I thought I could learn in a short period of time. I feel good about this semester because I feel like I've worked hard and done the best I could so far. As always around this time I begin to stress...which makes me so pleasant to be around (haha). Thankfully I've kept focused this semester and worked hard to be in a good position with my grades before finals. I just hope that all of the preparation I'm putting into these tests will pay off. The thing that started this whole blog, the service learning project, helped me to learn more about myself. I learned that even when you have to do something, like volunteering, and you really don't want to, if you do it you'll benefit from it. I'll be honest and say that I wasn't necessarily excited about having to volunteer during an already stressful semester. But because I made the time and went, I got so much out of it. It helped me to learn to see the perspectives of others before judging their actions or appearance. I know that that has helped me to deal with the people I have had to work with on projects and presentations. I reciceved an email today from Mississippi state that I will receive a response from them on December 21 if I got an interview or not. I hope that I do and I can't wait for what the future holds. I'm ready to graduate and start a new chapter of my life, and hopefully that chapter will be in vet school. I'm thankful for the opportunity that I have gotten to study here at St. Thomas and all of the good things that this school has brought to me. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday break and a very Merry Christmas! I know I can't wait to be home with my family and enjoying all the wonderful blessings I have in my life. I came across this bible verse today and it fits this time in my life perfectly...I think God does that on purpose sometimes :)
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see....
Hebrews 11:1
Merry Christmas! :)

Week 9

Well there's only one more week of blogging left after this week! Thanksgiving was this past Thursday and it was great. I got to go home and visit my family. I know it sounds really cliche, but it did make me think about how much I have to be thankful for. I was so grateful for being able to go home to my family and see my sister again since we had both been so busy that we hadn't been able to even talk since we saw each other over fall break. The fact that I have family that truly loves me and would do anything for me at any time. It's really sad for me to think about people who don't have a family like mine. I'm so thankful for my ability to be in school and get an education that will help me get into the career of veterinary medicine. I'm thankful for my ability to be active and do some of the things that I love most, like running and exercising. On Wednesday I received my first interview invitation to Kansas State University. I was so excited when I got the email that I immediately started crying. I'm so glad that I was able to tell my parents in person since I was home. I'm excited and now I think that I can actually do this, and get into veterinary school. It gave me the boost of confidence that I needed because I was beginning to get discouraged. Overall, I'm so thankful for my ability to go home and for a family that supports me. With this one interview invitation, I think I have the confidence to get through this semester when last week, it seemed extremely discouraging...God is good.

Week 8

I have now completed 14 hours of community service at the clinic, and I'm so glad that I did. I know that it was an assignment, but I really enjoyed it much more than I ever thought I would. I got to see what really goes on behind the scenes at a medical clinic. I also built a relationship with a lady that was temporarily working there that I will be keeping for a while. I am now working for her husband a few days a week to help him get organized with his up and coming business. I'm so glad that I got the opportunity to help him out some also. Even though I am getting paid, the lady I met told me that my coming to help has really given him a push to start because he was starting to get really discouraged with his business. They have been so sweet and I'm so glad to have met her at the clinic. The semester is coming to a close and its crazy how busy life is, but I am going to continue to work hard and love the life that I have been given. God has blessed me with so much and I'm so thankful for that. With Thanksgiving around the corner I've really been thinking about all of the things that I have to be thankful for. It's discouraging sometimes getting a not so good grade on an assignment, but I have to look past it and work on improving the next time. I'm thankful for a wonderful family that I get to see soon! Can't wait! Next week, starts the last full week of school and I'm going to make the most of it.

Week 7

This past week at the clinic I had to file patient record folders back onto shelves as well as pull certain patient files for some sort of organizing they were going to do. This was a little something different that made the time go by quickly. Also, I got to actually have a conversation with two of the ladies that work there. They asked me what I wanted to do after I graduated and I told them that I was planning on going to veterinary school. Ms. Vera told me about her 3 dogs, and that she doesn't particularly like them, which was kind of sad. I would give anything to be able to have my dog with me right now, but unfortunately I can't. I run almost every day and I see so many people running with their dogs and I wish I could still do that with my dog! Anyway, I told her that I wanted to specialize in equine and she told me her husband has horses, but she's not a fan of them either haha. Talking to her about my future was kind of scary. I'm so scared of failure and not getting into vet school. The vet school application process is so different from medical school because we don't get interviews until December or January, and medical school applicants have been going to interviews for months now. It's really making me anxious, but I am hoping to hear back from them soon. I just hope that all of the hard work that I have put into my academics and work with animals will pay off...right now is a really stressful time in any medical school applicant's life. I'm glad that I have a loving and supporting family that are constantly praying for me and giving me the encouragement I need to make it through this semester.

Week 6

This week at the clinic went pretty smoothly and wasn't super eventful, but I got a lot of stuff filed for them, so that was good. I like it when they give me a lot to do because it makes me feel like I'm doing something positive and not being a bother by asking for more things to do. Since it is the start of the new month, I had to turn in my volunteer time sheet, with all of the dates and times that I volunteered to Ashley. When I saw her, she remembered that I had told her that I was going to be applying to veterinary school. I was kind of surprised that she remembered that since I told her that and the very beginning of the semester and she has many volunteers that she is in charge of. I told her that I was just waiting to hear back about interviews and things like that. She went on to tell me that she was a biology major in college as well, which was pretty cool. She doesn't use it really in her job now, but that's what she did and where she started. The point of me saying this is that I felt special just because someone remembered what I had told them a while back. If something so minor can make me feel like that, then I should probably try and remember little things like that about other people. I may never know how much it meant to someone if I remembered a minute thing they never expected me to remember. Just a thought....

Week 5

This past week, I went back to the clinic after miss the week before because I was at home for fall break. It was good to be back because I am finally somewhat a part of the "team" in medical records. The people there are getting to know me and I'm getting to know them a lot better. This week Ms. Vera said that I looked like a California beach girl, and when I told her I was from an South Padre she told everyone there that she was right. It was pretty funny. I really like going there because the ladies that work there are really sweet and fun to talk to. While I was at home over Fall Break, I was talking to my mom about my volunteer work and told her that I was going to be done with my 10 hours soon, but I think I am still going to go every week. We just talked about the various things that I had done and been around. She said something to me that I thought was interesting. It's kind of the same thing that I talked about in a previous blog, about how you don't know where others are coming from or what they are going through in their lives at that time. My mom said even though I'm only there for 2 hours at a time, I may never know that the little bit of work I did may help someone else's day go more smoothly. I'm just glad that I can help the little bit that I can and I hope that it truly does help those working at the clinic. Sometimes I think that my little bit of work is insignificant in the big picture of things, but if it helps even one person, I think its worth it.

Week 4

Monday was the first day at the clinic that Ford, the man who is normally in charge, wasn't there and it was definitely chaotic. When I first got there, I had to get some paperwork signed so that they could record my volunteer hours. Once I gave the papers to Ashley, I went back to medical records to start filing papers into charts. Ms. Vera is the person in charge while Ford is out of town, so I went up and asked if there was any paperwork needing to be filed. She gave me a large stack, but as I was going through it, none of the charts were on file. Every single number had been pulled and wasn't there. It was extremely frustrating. I gave them back to Vera and told her that none of them were on file, and she realized that she had given me the wrong stack and that those numbers weren't even in the room I was working in. At first I was really annoyed by that, but as I though about it, I realized that it was a simple mistake and there was no reason for me to upset about something that minor. I got two more large stacks of paper, and all of the charts were on file. There were so many things to file I wasn't able to finish in the 2 hours that I was there. Something else kind of shocked me when I was there this week. Ms. Vera asked me how many hours I had done and if I was almost done with my time. I told her that I was over halfway done with my minimum of 10 hours, but I was going to continue to volunteer. She just kind of looked at me like I was crazy. She said that their jobs are boring, and didn't understand why I would want to continue if my hours were up. Her statement about her job being boring bothered me because I want to have a job that I love. My dad has always told me that if you're doing what you love, you'll never work a day in your life. I really like that saying and I hope that one day I will feel like my job is what I love. If I become a veterinarian, I will hopefully be doing what I love for the rest of my life.