“What?! It gets harder?!” Yeah, dude. You will long for the days of first year! Second year was easily the hardest year for me. We started taking upwards of 30 credits per semester, we started taking all the BIG courses, and we had to do that all on top of all the work and club activities we committed to. Oh and for my class THAT WAS THE YEAR WE WERE 90% ONLINE DUE TO COVID. So imagine, ALL OF THE ABOVE, BUT IN A TINY ROOM BY YOURSELF FOR A YEAR. Not fun. But we got through it, with a much higher prioritization of my mental health.

Now I say “Years” In the title. This is because your experience may vary from school to school. But from what I hear from other students, second year is just the hardest in terms of course load, course content, the whole shebang.  I relived what kept me sane through that Hundred Years of Solitude, and I have compiled a list of 5 things to prepare you for the toughest years of vet school.

ENJOY YOUR SUMMER

This is important. This goes back to the mental health thing I talked about. (You can always check out Mental Health Monday’s for some additional advice on how to make your brain happier HERE.) The thing is, when you have an opportunity to relax, chill, do something fun, DO IT.

You are now approaching your eventual lasy summer vacation, which is terrifying. You start to feel like an adult adult. Where you have to work during the summer. LAME. Now is your time to be a kid and enjoy the summer while you’ve got it! I spent my summer painting, redecorating, hiking, AND YES I SEE THOSE ARE BORING ACTIVITIES TO THE TYPICAL VET STUDENTS BUT I HAD FUN SO HA!

ANYWAY! Take this time, enjoy yourself and take a well deserved break for surviving first year.

DON’T THROW AWAY YOUR FIRST YEAR NOTES

These are FAR more useful than you give them credit for. I know in every other class you could do the “Cram then dump.” Where you put all your effort into passing the test, passed then completely garbage disposed all that info in your previous little noggin.

Yeah, not gonna cut it anymore.

Everything in vet school tends to build on itself. Physiology is the foundation for pharmacology. Histology is the foundation for bacteriology and parasitology. Anatomy is the foundation for EVERYTHING. You will be referring to earlier material A LOT. So don’t be like “that test was LAST semester! I don’t have to think about it again!” HAHA! Yes you do! Now hold onto those notes! You’re gonna need them!

GET A PLANNER OR CALENDAR

Oh look, my mom’s back. Hi, mom!

If you read my Post 5 Things I Wish I knew before I started vet school, you know Jennifer loves a good planner. She’s a Capricorn.

But this is important, because you need to stay on top of the literal tsunami of things coming at you this year. So having some type of organization system is helpful.

Dates come at you really quickly and you often don’t have much time to react to all the changes. So it’s important to have something to keep tabs of it all.

My school had a Google calendar for classes and used canvas for their course website, so I was able to transfer all my Assignment and test due dates onto another Google calendar so I had everything in one spot. But me being me, I often would forget what needed doing until zero hour when I realized I had 10 assignments due in 2 hours. Not ideal So usually first thing in the morning I would go through and make a To Do list of everything that was coming up due. That way I had a physical reminder of what tasks needed to be accomplished before the end of the day. Which leads into this next piece!

USE THAT CALENDAR TO SCHEDULE BREAKS

I say it over and over, YOU NEED TO SCHEDULE BREAKTIME FOR YOURSELF! Because if you don’t schedule it, it’s never going to happen. There’s always going to be some test coming up, some assignment you should get ahead on, some work ALWAYS needs to be done.

But you NEED to take care of yourself. And if you don’t take care of yourself, most likely no one is going to do it for you. Not until it gets BAD.

As mental health takes more of a priority in Vet Med, we realize that it’s important to recognize when we are struggling, when we need a break, when we need help. It’s especially important to remember that during this time. Things get tough, it comes at you fast, and it’s easy to get swept along the current. Always remember, you can’t be a vet if you are struggling to stay above water. Take the time, reach out to professors and friends if you are struggling. There’s only one you, and we need them here with us. ❤