Sunday, September 20, 2015

Career Week! life and journey of veterinarians

Hello homies, I haven’t updated this blog ever since I enter degree life, not that I posted much in the first place. I won’t rant about the first few weeks in this post though, cause, well, that will be too long and there are more pressing issues like; CAREER WEEK. It started on 14th September and went on for 3 days. As aspiring veterinarians, there is nothing more inspiring than listening to the talks and advices of experienced vets from all specializations and fields. These are a few posters of the career week which is pretty cool to me;

 



I learned new things from all the speakers. For example; I never thought that we are self-sufficient in poultry and swine industry. And I never thought veterinary medicine is such a large, diverse field. There is more in this field what meets the eye. What strikes me as a really important fact is that this profession is not all rainbows, you will be facing hard times in nearly all sorts of specialization you choose; whether small animals, large animals, and research. Being a veterinarian require tenacity, and flexibility, I mean, you're not only the doctor, you're also the dentist, the caretaker, and whatever roles you have to play. It’s a journey of a lifetime, and a lifetime of learning. What is more motivating than that?!
             
           I always wanted to be a veterinarian. But I don’t want to be ‘just’ a veterinarian. I wanted to be the crazy (not the bad one), passionate veterinarian with more than just enough knowledge. I don’t want to be the kind of veterinarian that left their patient dying just because it’s outside of their worktime hours. My childhood dream that kept pushing me until now is to be a wildlife veterinarian. I wanted to work at conservation areas or wildlife rehabilitation centre. Maybe this is because I spent a part of my childhood in a rural area at Sabah, and watching all those documentaries. This dream will be my pillar in these 5 years, so that whenever I feel overwhelm, this pillar will support me.
Dr. Melissa gold advice

                I admire all the speakers, they have their own experience to share. The mind blowing fact is that all of them starts their journey at Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in UPM. In fact some of the speakers were in the same batch! One of them became an equine veterinarian, one became a lecturer, and another one took a Master in psychology! Just imagine all of this people graduated from the same place and then branched to other places, faced different hardships and all emerged successful!
Prof. Dato' Dr, Shariff is giving a really motivating talk, "Dream big, The sky is your limit"

            
                But of course I paid special attention to Dr. Eve Foong talk. Her experience working at a zoo is motivating. The ups and downs, what type of works she does there. And I get to ask her a question whether people who wanted to go into wildlife should further their studies or just work as fresh graduates. She answered clearly. She advised us to volunteer a lot and try to get as much hands on we could get if we wanted to work as fresh graduates. And the goodies bag for those who asked a question is just a bonus, okay. *Grins* she also gave us her phone number. She’s really friendly!
This is Dr. Eve Foong, she looks really rugged and cool.

                That’s it for today’s post. Here is Bilbo Baggins (my favourite fictional character) expressing my feelings right now.


Thank you to all the seniors and lecturers that made career week happens. We, the DVM 1 students owe you guys a lot. And to the speakers, thank you for sharing with us, we really treasure those advices and wise words.

See you guys~

Ps: why does all the speakers look so young compared to their age?