The first of (probably) many entries!

This is my blog. Hello :]

I've been reading lots of other people's blogs lately, so I guess I'm following the herd and starting my own now! Basically I'm a soon-to-be-sophmore student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, studying Animal Science (thinking about a minor in Biotechnology), and wanting to eventually get into vet school. My first year in college wasn't really what I was expecting, though I also expected very little. I feel that I mostly ghosted through the year, kinda spacey and unfocused (and my roommate "issues" didn't help much).

I never had much real experience with animals, which is one thing that made me feel left out. Many of the others in my class had grown up on a ranch, worked on a farm, were involved with 4H (which I was hardly aware existed), or did a ton of volunteering at shelters and clinics already by the time they came to CP. Despite that, I feel like I've learned a lot already and am slightly amazed at some of the stuff I was allowed to do already.

One of my fist misadventures was performing a fecal float on samples taken from some of the foals on campus. I've been able to draw blood from a horse, given pre-op drugs to a cat that was getting neutered, watched said neuter (along with another on a dog and a few spays), given a cat and a horse vaccinations, captured cattle in a squeeze chute, watched the cattle get vaccinations and freeze-brands, dissected a stillborn fetal pig, learned how to make basic sutures, handled horses and cattle, and of course practiced basic exams on both dogs and horses. Oh, and we watched a horse castration and wolf tooth extraction as well!

I doubt myself a lot, but every time I get to do stuff like that it's amazing, and I know that this is what I want to be involved in. I know I would like to be a vet, but the real question is if I am motivated enough to get there and actually get through it. For now I'll just try to focus on the now, and my measly 2.5 GPA that I walked away with this year (including the D I need to make up in econ, BLEH). I'm resolving myself to do great next year, and get my GPA back up where it should be. I don't think I'll ever be an A student, so lets shoot for straight B+'s!