Revisiting 13

I was 13 when I started working at a Veterinary Hospital in Minnesota.  I can't begin to tell you how shy and insecure I was or how awkward and unusual my personality seemed to others.  Still, I was a happy little kid and all I wanted to do was to work with animals.  So, while at the Vet one day my mom opened her mouth to my wishes and voila, I had my first job.

I loved working after school and on Saturdays, that is, when my CC and Track schedules permitted.  School and running came first, work, second.  I am not sure what I thought working at a veterinary clinic would be, but like most things in life, I was just along for the ride and did what I was told without complaint.
I did a lot of cleaning.  A lot of poop scooping.  A lot of vomit wiping.  Sweeping, dusting, mopping and straightening.  It was a not so glorious job for a kid earning 3.25/hour. My first paycheck was around 15 dollars and I was so excited that all the litter boxes and projectile vomiting were manageable.

But then there were the times I was able to sit in on surgeries and watch the doctor at work. Spays and Neuters, mostly. Some C-Sections. Lots of de-claws, which always made me smell funny at the dinner table as it was in my hair on my clothes.  I really disliked tail-docking and dew claw removal because there was no anesthesia and the mother dog had to sit and watch her children cry.  It made me sad. Unplugging feline ureters were simply awful to hear.  A bear with claw issues.  Pygmy goats having trouble birthing, Owls with skin issues, Rabbits feeling a little under the weather. Mini-Horses with hoof problems.  And Deer.  Oh those poor deer.  Fawns, really.  They had been run over by a baler and lost some hooves, they were just cut right off and the wee ones were in shock so badly and obviously needed to be put down.  I can't imagine what that must have been like for a mother of triplets to go a-foraging, leave her kids presumably safe, only to return to an empty bed and months of carrying three children--gone, blood everywhere.

Living in a state park allotted us many experiences from raising fawns to raccoons and saving as many critters as possible along the way.  My life was an adventure in wildlife.

I imagine a lot had happened in the last 20 years since my first days at the Veterinary Hospital.  No more X-Ray developments in the corner of a tiny bathroom with a database to hold them, rather than an over-sized file cabinet on the second floor that was just a little too short to walk around and about as dusty as you might imagine.  No more waiting weeks for immediate and now digital test results.  Vaccines of higher quality, a bigger shelf of available and faster acting medications, new research and dynamic results.  Animal Science is probably no where near the small country vet practice I knew as a kid.

I imagine this allows for better empathy and time with the patients and the families.  I know that email has been a great resource these days, too.  Veterinarians can download and send documents and test results online, chat about results and effects of treatments without the patients have to wait for a call-returned or another office visit.

So, why is it that it took me 20 years to get back into this little girl's dream?
Bad choices, wrong moves and allowing someone else to have a dream before me. And then a lot of it was about getting by and making due.

Six years ago, I met my match.  He pushed and supported; talked with me, not at me; listened to me and heard my heart.  This is a guy who grabbed my hand at the first of many to come marathons and ran into the finish with me--by my side.  "I'm in this with you," he said.  Life, love, circumstance and breath.  He's in this life with me. And about 2 years ago, we decided that having our dreams was more important than anything else.  As such, he has gone back to school as well to help provide us with the opportunity of owning a small business.  His career change has gone from Ambulatory medicine to trauma nurse to small and private practice nursing to being a Funeral Director--and he's very good at it.  In just over one year, he'll be through with his internship, graduated and fully licensed.  And that's when I get to really focus on my dream.

As a kid I wanted to be a Veterinarian. I may be older than the majority of my classmates, but I am in it with full thought and full intention.  It's a 10% shot--this getting into Vet School.  But I like a good challenge.  So, as soon as colleges open up after this big snow storm, I am going to speak to an advisor about going pre-vet.  What makes this wonderful is that I already have my B.A., so all I need is my science prerequisites.  I can't wait.  I am so giddy, I may pop.