First Day of Classes & White Coat Ceremony

Today was officially my first day of Vet School classes and I'm already pretty stressed, but it was pretty exciting. My first class of the day was anatomy where we were assigned groups and the class coordinating professor ran through all of the scheduling and expectations of the course. It seems like scheduling is going to be the biggest issue with this class because sometimes it's like you have to be in three places at once since it combines dissection, radiography, and both small and large animal palpation. For any given day I'll be doing one of those while other members of my group go on to do the other tasks and then we will confer at the end of class. It's going to be pretty challenging, but it seems like the professors are really nice and really want to help us learn! After a break which was supposed to be 20 minutes, but turned into 10 since anatomy ran over time I ended down to the multi-purpose laboratory for Microanatomy & Embryology (AKA: Histology & Embryology). The class is split between two professors and the one we have now is from Europe (I believe Slovakia although I couldn't really understand him, LOL). He seems really sweet, but like I said he's hard to understand. I love the way he says the word nucleus, which he pronounces nuc-le-oose, haha. The class isn't the most exciting in the world and I've determined that I will most likely have to chug coffee during the 10 minute breaks in order to stay awake and get in enough study time, etc. At 12:00 we break for lunch until class starts at 1:10. After lunch we had Animal Nutrition which is promised to be our most difficult class. The professor seems pretty entertaining even if he's going to be really tough. At one point he walked out of the room screaming that he was done lecturing and that the chartreuse colored arrows were making him angry, only to come back in and say he was unchanged. Apparently it had something to do with homeostasis, but whatever. Our last class of the day, which would have been physiology, was canceled so that we could get ready for our White Coat Ceremony. We rushed home and got changed and rushed back to try to print notes before the ceremony began which was only a semi success, but oh well. The White Coat Ceremony was really nice. If you don't know what a White Coat Ceremony is it is an official induction to the veterinary medical profession where all incoming students are presented with their white coat and take the Veterinary Student Oath which reads as follows:
"At the time of being admitted to the school of Veterinary Medicine at Ross University, I solemnly pledge: To Consecrate my life to the service of both animals and humanity; to give my teachers, staff and classmates the respect that is their due; to conduct myself at all times with conscience, dignity, and integrity; to always provide comfort and compassion to teaching and client animals left in my care; to maintain the honor and noble traditions of the veterinary medical profession; to not allow considerations of religion, ethnicity, gender , sexual orientation, politics or social standing to preclude productive and constructive relationships with my instructors, staff, classmates, or clients; to never use my veterinary knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity; I make these promises sincerely, freely and upon my honor".

Anyway, it was really nice ceremony and there was a quick reception that followed where we all ate and took pictures. It's funny because even though orientation is over my orientation group all found each other and we hung out together during that time. We all had a lot of studying to do even though it's only the first day so we all split up to go home. Once we were home Emily and I tried to get into study mode and finally succeeded after trying to figure out how to use Ecollege which is a program like Blackboard where we can access our course materials. Although stressful, overall it was a good day. I can't believe I've started vet school and I'm here on this beautiful island…it's pretty incredible. This may not be what I pictured when I thought about what vet school would be like or where I would end up, but for now it sure is awesome!