Dear Lindsey-the Veterinary Student,

Remember your first day shadowing at a small animal clinic? The first case was a dog diagnosed with lymphoma, a skin cancer. You watched fear and sadness wash over the elderly owner’s eyes as she realized euthanasia was the best choice for her dog. That didn’t scare you away. If anything, it only made you work harder to get into veterinary school because you knew the reason you were put on this earth is to be the emotional and physical healer of animals and people.

Fast-forward five years later, you are the naïve first year veterinary student, feeling inadequate, out of place, and ultimately you are not confident in your ability to become a doctor. What happened to your motivation and faith in yourself, stepping into veterinary school four months ago?

 I will tell you- you made the mistake of coming in, comparing yourself to others instead of solely focusing and believing in YOU.  

You need to realize the road will not be easy and there will be plenty of times you are in a daze of high stress, little sleep, and thinking all odds are against you but that is just LIFE. The exams and tests are going to keep coming. I want you to remember this is the foundation of the rest of your life and you are not learning for the “grade” anymore, but you are learning to save the lives of animals. And in four short years….

YOU WILL HAVE MADE IT.

You will earn that degree that you have been dreaming about since you were in third grade. Somehow, you learned how to focus in the face of many distractions, realized your drive exceeded your expectations, improved your test scores, and mastered complex material. The day will come when you put on a white coat and stethoscope and it no longer feels like a Halloween costume. You no longer feel like a fraud. Your life experiences are used as inspiration to fulfill this next chapter in your life, where veterinary medicine has always left its bookmark. When you make a diagnosis, you reflect on your first day of shadowing and will be determined to turn the look of fear in one’s eyes into a look of hope. This was your dream. This was your mission.

Now go out there and get them.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lindsey Whitlock, DVM