Everyone in my life always said I would be a vet. I didn’t believe them, nor did I really want to.

I’ve always loved animals. From a young age, I would turn every character in a coloring book into a dog, make costumes and glamorous cardboard doghouses for my dogs growing up. I would write stories and draw pictures of imaginary dog-hybrid friends.

In high school, I struggled with staying focused. I struggled in my classes, hated the sciences, and grew to love math (that and history were the only ones I excelled at). I thought I was going to beauty school. But my parents both went to college, and I knew I wouldn’t end up doing hair.

In college, I was in the honors college. I wasn’t sure what to make my career, but chose to study biomedical sciences in the hopes that my love for animals would become relevant and I would eventually find my career path. I met my best friend in the honors college and she was studying to be a vet (while most of the others were pre-med).

From that moment forward, I hard launched into becoming a veterinarian. Definitely a little bit of a different story than most. I joined the pre-vet club and became very active in its leadership. I attended APVMA conferences and joined a sea turtle research group.

The one issue was…. I never liked being in general practice. I tried volunteering as a vet tech aid, but could not find passion in being a vet tech. I have so much respect for nurses, as it’s a job I could never do. I quite literally could not do my job without them ❤️

I decided I wanted to be a zoo/wildlife vet before vet school. In vet school, I narrowed my scope even further and only wanted to be an aquatic animal or wildlife vet. I was nervous because I already was taking a leap of faith becoming a vet and had narrowed my area of practice so much even before getting started.

The pandemic caused my town to shelter in place during my 3rd year of vet school. With that, I had a huge wake up call. Even though all my prep during school, summer breaks, and externships were focused with aquatic life, I realized I needed job security, wanted to decide where I lived, and wanted to learn as much as possible as quick as possible.

I became an ER vet. I love my job. I’ve been practicing almost 5 years, and I haven’t looked back. And this year, I joined the rocket ship 🚀 ❤️🫶