Road to Veterinary Medicines

Road to Veterinary Medicines

It is the most frequently asked question to a kid that “what you want to be?” and most of the replies are common professions or random. This reply changes from time to time. However, when we entered into high school, this question becomes significant part of our life. At this moment, students start identifying their skills and expertise in particular area of interest. However, for me, it was not that simple. The road to veterinary medicine was difficult and challenging.

When I was a child, my parents wanted a bright future for me. My parents did not want me to struggle like they had initially. My mother passed out college, and my step-father did graduation from high school. Growing up in Hawai'i could be a bit difficult for teens. Surrounded by mountains and beaches, there are many distractions for kids to stray away from school. To keep me focused and out of trouble, my parents enrolled me in several activities from Hula to piano and even Girl Scouts. When I was in high school, I was encouraged to involve in school clubs and sports.

When it came down to choosing a career path, I had an idea of what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a vet and work for animals. Studying veterinary medicine is in my genetics, as my grandfather used to care animals, and I worked with him in caring animals. From that time the interest of veterinary medicines initiated in me. It feels immense satisfaction when you save life of animal, a creature who does not speak your language and neither express their emotions; however, spending much time with animals make you understand their feelings and needs of them. While my parents only allowed birds and rabbits in our house, my grandparents always had some kind of animal around their home. They had dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens and birds. I loved spending time at their house not just to be with them, but I also wanted to take care of them. I use to follow my grandpa around to feed them and give each animal their own individual care and attention. When any of the animal did not see well he used to take care of it and gave special attention. I remember when one of his dogs had a wound on his leg; my grandpa brought him into the house, cleaned the wound, and wrapped with gauze. He then isolated the dog from the others so he could take the time to heal. My grandpa cared for his animals like they were his own children. So, he knew that when an illness or injury was out of his hands, he called a veterinarian for expert care. The veterinarian used to show sympathy and provide extensive care as my grandpa did.

After expressing my career path plans, my parents were not supportive of my decision to go to veterinarian school. They wanted me to work in the health ...