Wild Week 1

What a crazy week! A group of 150 strangers were launched into “Prologue” and walked out the other side with white coats and a plethora of new life-long friends!

Going into this week, I was honestly nervous and had no idea what to expect. My mind kept bouncing between being extremely excited and being completely freaked out about this next chapter. When most people hear the words “UC Davis Vet School” a few things may automatically come to mind; prestigious, stuffy, pretentious, tight-run, egoistic, and arrogant. After a week of witnessing the amount of effort that faculty, staff, and students put into this week to make sure the incoming class felt as though they belonged, I can confidently tell you that all those assumptions are completely false.

Morgan, Katelyn and I after our first day!

Before the actual academic week began, I had the privilege of moving into a house with two of my best friends from undergrad, shoutout to Morgan and Katelyn for still tolerating me (and Churro)! Fun little fact, Morgan and I were actually freshman year roommates at Cal Poly, talk about a literal day-one homie.

This week began with a few days packed full of important housekeeping information.

Along with going over the curriculum, policies, and mental health we also had multiple activities that caused us to look introspectively and evaluate where we were at personally coming into this next chapter of our lives. We were also introduced to our problem-based-learning group (my PBL pictured left). This is a group of 8 students that will work together on different activities for the whole year! We then shifted into a day and a half of pure team building. The school hired a team of professional team builders that builders that flew in from a few different states and they put us through a series of activities that challenged us to develop critical teamwork skills. I will leave the rest up to your imagination because I don’t want to ruin the experience for future UC Davis vet students. Just know it was a WILD time! While the whole class was together for the week, most of the emphasis on teamwork was within the PBL group. In the blink of an eye, it was Friday and the first week of vet school was over!

Churro also made some new friends, meet Dunner!

While looking around the room, all the unfamiliar faces were more recognizable and the energy in the room had a completely different feel.

A few key takeaways from this week:

This is NOT going to be a solo journey. A lot of the things that got everyone to this point were done alone. Among our undergrad classmates we may have been known as the “lone wolves”. It was up to us to get the best grades, find experience, participate in extracurriculars that made our applications stand out and ultimately go through a rigorous application process. It is now time to shift the “me” mentality into the “we” mentality and understand that at the end of the day, we are all going to graduate with the same degree. After graduation, I would rather be able to call up a classmate and ask for their input rather than miss out on those opportunities to connect with people because I shut everyone else out.

Taking care of yourself is just as important, if not more important than academic success. If you are not taking care of yourself, it will directly affect how you are able to show up for yourself and those around you. Sleep, exercise, and nutrition are key factors that affect how well we will be able to learn and retain the information that is being disbursed. We all made it into the program, we belong here and do not have to sacrifice our wellbeing to prove that.

You will get out what you put in. Now don’t roll your eyes, I know this is a super cliché phrase, but it still holds true. Regardless of the nature of the activity, the amount of effort that you put in, directly affects what you gain. During this past week, some of the activities seemed goofy but when the team fully committed to giving their best effort, the whole group benefited significantly. The more ownership you take of your learning, the more personalized your experience will be and that will reflect the type of veterinarian that you become.

Be a jealous guardian of your time. This is directly stolen from Dr. Jim Clark, and I think it is super valuable to emphasize. Everyone has the same amount of time in a day, and we all have the ability to choose how we spend that time. There will be a lot of opportunities that come our way, but it is crucial to understand that a “yes” to one thing, is a “no” to another. Focus on spending your time doing things that feel right to you and remember that just because someone else is doing something doesn’t mean that you have to do that thing as well.

Change is hard and I honestly didn’t know what to expect walking into last week. Looking back, I am so grateful for all the effort that that the orientation team put into this first prologue week. All our fourth-year mentors sacrificed a two-week block of their clinical rotations to makes sure that we were all welcomed and had the ability to have all of our questions answered. Professors and the admin team sacrificed a lot of time over the summer to plan activities. Some even unknowingly put their safety on the line and had to dodge flying plastic containers because our group’s method was just a little TOO efficient, if you know what I mean.

While week one was jam-packed and exhausting, it was also a super memorable way to begin vet school and I can personally say that I feel much more comfortable and ready to start this adventure!!

White Coat Ceremony with my Parents and Dr. Clarke!