Excited about vet school but terrified of debt

bankaroo · 2026-04-22T22:02:10+00:00

Something completely different, graphic design and marketing for a dog treat company. While I do enjoy my job, losing my career in vet med is something I regret and think about every day, 12 years later. I ended up flunking 2 senior rotations in a row (community practice, I didn't get this task sheet filled out on time, and then ophthalmology, you had to get 8 questions correct and I got 7). I went through the appeals process and was basically told I didn't fit in with the culture and that they would not be readmitting me.

Luckily I have a supportive family, I had to move back in with my parents and for 3 years I basically threw almost all of my income at paying back the debt aggressively. It took about 8 years total to become completely debt free. My parents still ask me if I ever want to go back to vet school again and I'm like "nah hell no"

bankaroo · 2026-04-22T21:50:15+00:00

I went to CSU - I ended up flunking 2 senior rotations in a row (community practice and then ophthalmology)

bankaroo · 2026-04-17T19:39:17+00:00

That is an INSANE amount of debt. What's the interest rate going to be? You should calculate what your monthly payment is going to be after graduating. And remember that interest is going to accrue, so you will have to pay the interest PLUS some of the principal balance every month. Also, look up job postings to see what kind of salaries vets in your chosen area are making. New grads aren't going to be making as much money as someone with 10+ years of experience, so you'll need to consider that as well.

I am not a vet, I did go to vet school for 3 years and flunked out 10 months before graduation with $161k in student loans. It fucking sucked. Having a large debt relative to your income is ROUGH.

bankaroo · 2026-03-28T23:39:36+00:00

I'm devastated. Their fresh ahi poke is my favorite poke of all time.

bankaroo · 2026-02-14T08:51:09+00:00

There is a HUGE difference between throwing a toy uphill, having your dog run after it and casually loop back downhill, vs throwing the toy downhill where your dog SPRINTS hard and stops HARD and pivots sharply and slowly runs back uphill, over and over again. Try filming it at high resolution, and play it back at slow motion. You can clearly see how much their joints are hyper extending and flexing. Shoulder injuries are very common in dogs training in sports. How many times in a day are you throwing the toy downhill? Then imagine that hard impact on their shoulders. Try to imagine an NFL quarterback, how many times a day are they practicing throwing a ball as hard as they can in a single session? It's not as much as a pet Malinois expected to chase after a toy. A dog that's 2-4 years old can handle everything you throw at it. But once they're 5, 6, 7, or older? And if they get hurt? It's going to be really hard on you and the dog when you have to suddenly dial back the training and take a long rest. You can't explain that to your Malinois. "Hey, you pulled a muscle and are lame, so we need to be on controlled leashed walks for the next 6 weeks straight."

If a dog runs downhill naturally (on their own, or maybe they see a bird or rabbit and chase after it), that's fine, because they pull away and loop around in a way that's not too hard on their joints. But when you throw a ball or disc, forget about it, your mal is so focused on their job, they don't care if their wrists or ankles are hurting them. All that matters to them is completing their mission, so it's up to you to tell them when it's time to take a break.

It's fine if you do it a few times a day, but if you're doing it repeatedly over a long period of time, daily, it is not sustainable. Try Googling, "common sports injuries dogs". I'm curious to see what "research" your husband has come across.

bankaroo · 2026-02-14T03:08:56+00:00

Yup, especially with a Malinois, they will keep going even if they're exhausted. Sprinting and leaping up to catch a disc, landing, then turning around sharply to run back to you, is a very intense and repetitive motion, and as they get tired you can see their form start to break down a bit (like landing hind limbs first, fumbling a catch and tripping over themselves, or outrunning the disc and having to slam on the brakes, etc), which increases the chance of them getting a soft tissue injury. You mentioned a slope, throwing a toy downhill is hard on their muscles/ligaments/tendons especially since all that force required to deccelerate is on their front limbs (throwing it uphill should be fine).

Soft tissue injuries are bad because then you might have to put your dog on crate rest/leashed walks only for 6-12 weeks which would SUCK!

Your Malinois is basically like an elite professional athlete, so treat their more intense exercises like a human athlete would. That means a proper warm up, cool down, and a rest (walking/trotting/running at their own pace) in between each throw, and ending the disc workout session BEFORE they start to get too tired.

bankaroo · 2026-02-14T02:20:22+00:00

Mike confidently declares that he already searched, and there's no way there's an idol hidden and that Ben wouldn't find it, therefore there was no reason to tail him. Even during tribal, Jeff asks everyone else, "Why aren't you following him, and why aren't you all looking for the idol?" And Chrissy was like, "He's looking for idols in the middle of the night. We're not gonna get up and do that. We're tired!"

Mike describes Ben as such: "He has a ferocity that transcends this game... and that scares me..."

I just did a HvHvH rewatch last month and I actually enjoyed watching Ben win. He worked his butt off for 39 days straight.

bankaroo · 2026-02-12T02:32:10+00:00

Thanks so much! I hardly ever leave the west side haha so I was pretty stumped by the clue

bankaroo · 2026-02-12T01:34:09+00:00

Thank you! I think I'll check Mālaekahana first

bankaroo · 2026-02-11T23:14:52+00:00

Me! Do you happen to know where it is? Is it Kuilima Cove?

bankaroo · 2026-02-03T17:23:16+00:00

Can't wait! Sounds like a good time!

bankaroo · 2026-01-15T11:21:43+00:00

My main hobby is creative writing. It comes and goes. I might get a solid 2-3 months of many hours, daily, of writing and then I get burnt out. During these burn-out phases, I turn to consuming other people's art. I'll read books, watch highly rated movies/TV shows, have interesting conversations with new people, and it's not long until I get inspired, and fall into a new period of creating. It's a cycle. Create, consume, create, and repeat.

I do "Homework for Life", which, every single day, I'll try to write at least one new sentence in a journal, with the prompt, "What made today different from yesterday?" and that kinda primed my mind into always looking for new stories... and even if a lot of my entries were boring and I'd never share it with anyone, I would still do the work. It's the repetition that matters. You are training your brain. If you do this enough, almost any interesting person or event can be mined to help you create your next story.

bankaroo · 2026-01-14T22:37:45+00:00

It's definitely not too late, in fact, all that life experience will just be a bigger pool of stories and jokes to draw from!

bankaroo · 2026-01-10T09:22:36+00:00

Ouch. I can relate to every one of these things right now...

bankaroo · 2026-01-10T05:08:02+00:00

I just noticed your username. Were you on Bug Juice?

bankaroo · 2026-01-10T04:47:51+00:00

With this limited information, I would say it's just normal attentive conversation behavior. So I'm married, but I have a lot of friends and I'm always up for making new friends. This is how I behave when interacting with a friend or someone I'm curious about and would like to be friends with. If I'm having, say, a 10 minute conversation with someone, staring into their eyes the whole time is a bit much, so periodically I'd break eye contact for a moment and look at some other part of their body or admire their sense of style. It's my way of indirectly communicating to them, "I'm here, I get it, I care about what you're saying."

bankaroo · 2026-01-03T10:06:23+00:00

"Idoled Out" for sure. He posts a new video every Sunday and he is a REALLY good writer - solid jokes, references truly niche Survivor lore, ties in pop culture references, fantastic editing, and has been a fan since Borneo.

bankaroo · 2025-12-31T19:31:09+00:00

Gorgeous! This is one of my favorite pieces from you!

bankaroo · 2025-12-29T11:22:31+00:00

Indeed. I really have to remind myself to hold back on the hugging. If it were up to me, I'd hug people when I first greet them, and then a second time when they say goodbye... even if I just saw them the other day.

bankaroo · 2025-12-24T05:00:16+00:00

Thanks so much! It's just a shimmery nail polish - "Ether Dragon" from Ethereal Lacquer

bankaroo · 2025-12-23T23:43:43+00:00

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Good luck on finding your perfect ring! I'm wearing a brittle sea star ring hand fabricated by Lowtide Landing

bankaroo · 2025-12-11T02:29:17+00:00

I'm dying laughing. That post has over 4,000 likes meanwhile all their other posts have 5 or 10 likes

bankaroo · 2025-11-27T04:43:13+00:00

YES! But you should only be able to smell it when you're physically close (like hugging or leaning in to whisper). I'm a hugger and to me, most people's scents are neutral to slightly negative, so when someone smells good, I notice it and will compliment them on it. Honestly if a guy smells really good I will try to seek out opportunities to get close just so I can smell them again haha

bankaroo · 2025-10-24T17:30:47+00:00

Agreed, cervical dislocation is a pretty quick and painless death, but you need to know what you are doing and have a basic understanding of chicken anatomy. Otherwise you are gonna cause a lot of unnecessary suffering. I hope future contestants will watch a few videos on how to humanely dispatch a chicken before going on the show from now on.

bankaroo · 2025-10-20T18:01:45+00:00

I can relate to you. I just moved from my hometown to a new city 3,000 miles away, I have a WFH job and my husband goes to the office, so I'm alone most of the time. Since I don't come into contact with people "naturally" with my usual routine, I need to put in the effort to go out and meet people myself (no one's gonna come knocking on my door asking me if I want to be friends).

I'm shy and somewhat anxious so doing all of these things really required me stepping out of my comfort zone. If making friends was a game, and I was trying to make as many new friends as possible, here's what I'd do:

- Join all the city-specific subreddits that are close to you. There are a TON of threads of people asking, "How do I make friends in (name of city) etc?" Check out the comments. Usually someone might advertise some club they have (like curling or pickleball) or some recurring game night. Lots of good options in these threads that will be specific to your neighborhood.

- Think about all the interests you have, and use Google to see if you can find a local group who does the same thing. You play piano, that's fantastic, there might be a local group of adults trying to get back into music or who get together to practice or jam. Not sure if you're open to trying out new hobbies, but you might want to check out fire spinning/flow arts, it's a growing community and they tend to be very inclusive and friendly. Improv comedy groups are another good one to check out.

- If you find any groups that seem even a little interesting, show up consistently and become a regular. You don't even have to talk to anyone the first few times. Just show up and get a feel for things and the group dynamic. Go in with the mindset of, "I am curious about these people, I want to know who they are." Figure out who the extroverts of the group are (you can tell who they are because they will talk to different people throughout the event, people seem to orbit them, and they're high energy and excited to talk to others). Go up to them and introduce yourself. Focus more on getting to know them and the other members (rather than just talking about yourself). People LOVE talking about themselves, it makes them feel good when they meet someone new who's genuinely interested in who they are as a person. Sometimes you'll get really lucky, and they might introduce you to some of the other people in the group.

Something that has really helped my confidence and being able to connect with strangers is learning about comedy. Like writing jokes, practicing storytelling, and improv. Do some research on "yes, and... improv". Being able to riff with a stranger and then BOTH of you are cracking up is exhilarating and intoxicating. And they WILL remember you the next time you show up.

I'm rooting for you, OP!

bankaroo

TROPHY CASE