The good, the bad, the ugly.

I guess I'm really fortunate.

I am given the opportunity to go abroad to further my studies and chase that one dream I had since I was a little girl: Being a vet. My dad could never understand my passion towards animals or the reason why I need to choose this crazily expensive course, which returns seem not even half the effort you relentlessly put in, just for the sake of graduating as a veterinarian.

I have always been crazy about animals since I was young. I remember I was always asking mum and dad if I could have a dog and they always said no, at least till I was 10, when I got my first and only puppy, Coco. I did everything I could, from hinting how cute puppies were in pet shops to reading out the classified ads of "pets for sale" in the newspapers to my parents each day.

Growing up, I had a wide collection of dog books, cat books, and I was a subscriber of dog and pet magazines. I even had a CD of dog breeds from the American Kennel Club and I would spend hours a day, just clicking through each breed and reading all about them.
I even daydreamt of having all the different breeds, and how it would be.
(yes, i know.........)

The only other pet I got was a cute pair of hamsters. The never did give birth for a year until one year I brought them back to grandma's during Chinese New Year and on the first day, mama hamster gave birth to 7 little cuties! This continued about once every 2 weeks, and I was giving away 7 hamsters to the pet shops each time a new litter was born. Somehow, I could keep up and I remember having 21 hamsters. TWENTY ONE. And yes, I bathed every single one of them everytime I cleaned the cage. I would use doggie shampoo and even give them a blowdry. I was maybe 14 or 15 and I spent hours cleaning the cages and devoting so much time to them, one day, my mum made me give them all away on the way to school.

I was heart broken.

Ok back to where I begun, might have strayed off a little there.

And so yes, here I am studying Veterinary Science, fulfilling my dreams. Being in this course has not always been a bed of roses, as all I ever saw and visioned when I was young were the nice Animal Planet shows However, Veterinary School is challenging (it can be HELL), up to the point where some of my other friends in other courses think I no longer have a life.

It's a struggle to have up to 7 subjects a semester (when the usual number another person in Uni would have is 4) and 10 papers to sit for during the 3 week exam period when others around you might only have 3 or 4 papers.

Sometimes, I work myself dry and I think to myself, "Oh my god, what did I get myself into?"

However, I would never swap this career for anything else in the world.

What other courses allows you to be on a campus, shared with cattle, horses, dogs and sheep?

Which other course allows you to run around with greyhounds during lunch breaks?


Being in Vet also means:
1. Converse shoes are the "in" thing and not high heels.
2. No nail polish or long nails (not allowed in surgery pracs). Go for the short and natural look.
3. Jeans and t shirt is always practical. No skirts or cute little frilly tops on prac days.
4. No free days in the entire week. 8am starts on 3 days out of the 5 is a norm.
5. Scars (from that cat at yesterday's consultation), scratches and bite marks should be present on some part of your body. Or else, you're probably just not experienced enough.
6. No holidays. (when 80-90% of your holidays are taken up doing clinical work experience)

And yes, I constantly meet girlfriends from other courses who look demure in nice shoes and clothings and I pop along to hang out in my dirty converse shoes and a pair of jeans and t shirt.

But, at the end of the day, I feel that being with animals is way too rewarding,

and no wants of being more of a girly girl in heels or any other pleasure in life (like longerrrrrrrrr breaks) would make me regret my choice.