I have just finished the ninth semester of Vet’s School. I found it really hard, but not for the reasons you might think. You see, I am British born and raised, and when I was in my late twenties I moved to Brazil. After several adventures and projects, I took the university entrance exam in a language that I was not yet fully proficient at and yet managed to pass. Thus began six years of anxiety.
What I discovered was that you spend four years studying theory and one year of clinical practice before qualifying. I used to hate walking into the classroom with everybody staring at me. But I quickly made friends. I was able to keep up with the content. The difficulty was that the content was delivered in Portuguese, and I had only recently learned the language. One of the first skills I had to acquire was to increase my attention span. Then I had to figure out how I was going to study, because studying is a very personal thing and what works for me may not work for you. It was whilst reading Richard Dawkins’ autobiography that I picked up some study tips, but this was close to the end of my degree.
So I tried all kinds of approaches, such as noting everything the lecturer said (big mistake because it was exhausting and unfeasible and a bad way to study), to recording classes, to doing spider charts and algorithms and mind maps, to noting key words and then doing a lot of dictionary work. One of the best ways to study was to obtain the book on the reading list in both English and Portuguese.
It was when I entered the clinical year that I realised the four years of theory had been easy in comparison. During the previous semesters nobody cared if you were late, least of all the professors, or if you didn’t do the homework or you copied it the only person you were cheating was yourself.
Then I started the ninth semester and everything changed. The professors disappeared. I had to work in a team of eight people. My team did not speak my language. I could not participate in their jokes and I did not understand their slang. And they all spoke a the same time. And they were half my age. We had to do shifts. I had to have my mobile on me at all times for four months. And I was receiving 500 messages a day from my team. 490 were not important. The team leader demonstrated narcissistic tendencies. After three weeks I had an argument with her. That was a cathartic experience, and I had to think how I was going to deal with the rest of the five months. I developed a strategy.
I realised I would have to place myself at the bottom of the hierarchy if I was going to have any respect at all. I decided to always be visible, always be active, always be on hand and willing to help out no matter what. I decided to give total attention to the team leader, which was not easy because she never stopped talking and spoke too fast. I eneded up paying special attention to her tone to find out whether she was delegating or otherwise. I would take critiscisms without argument, act on instructions without comment. At night I would access the internet, find motivational quotes and print them out for taking to university the next day. My strategy became
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Receive angry instruction
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Read motivational quote
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Breathe
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Live in the moment
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Start a blog.
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Pay attention to body language
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Neutral face
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Chin in
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Shoulders back
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Direct eye contact
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Stop nibbling inside mouth
Seems silly, doesn’t it, but it made the difference between the dark depths of depression and becoming a better man.
The fourth and final module was easier. There were no shifts, and I had fewer problems tackling the homework and getting up early. Now it is done, and there are graduation photo sessons, three months in the UK and the final paper. Today I am the happiest man alive!
My Bio. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Field Biology and Habitat Management, a Master’s degree in Conservation Biology and soon I will qualify as a Veterinary Surgeon with a major interest in wildlife veterinary medicine and surgery. You can contact me on thecritterdoctor@hotmail.com.
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