It's not selfish to love yourself and take care of yourself, it's a necessity. ~Mandy Hale

We had to attend a well-being seminar. I will refrain from revealing my overall opinion of the seminar until the very end of this reflective piece, but will provide input as I describe the events that occurred.

The professor started by talking about the importance of attending the seminar. How most vets believe that things will slow down and get easier once they graduate. However, this couldn’t be any further from the truth, and we need to be able to recognize the signs of depression and anxiety, and have the tools necessary to deal with them. The seminar was primarily student-lead, with our professor guiding us as we went along. It started off by having us split into groups of 5 or 6. A lot of my friends happened to be at this seminar, and I felt very loved as I was suddenly surrounded by a large group of individuals (we split off into two).

The professor opened with the question “If you were to give advice to some second years, what would you tell them?” A great starting question, but unbeknownst to her, second year was a nightmare for majority of our class, and this question dragged up emotions that a lot of us had worked so hard to suppress. Last year, we lost a beloved classmate unexpectedly and without any known cause. In addition to this, I had been dealing with my own personal trauma. My husband is an officer for the United States Navy, and he was on deployment. He was scheduled to be in port in Australia, but was rerouted to North Korea at the last minute, at the time when all the missiles were being launched. It was the perfect storm. Being an international student from the states I couldn’t have felt more isolated, and especially at a time when I was most anxious and under the greatest demands. Obviously I survived, I’m here as a DVM3 student. I could lie and tell you I handled it all with grace, but truth is, I’m only here because of God’s grace. I cried myself to sleep for weeks. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t study, all I wanted to do was lay in bed and pretend like this wasn’t happening to me. However, my experience shaped me and I feel I can provide some pointers.

My first piece of advice is to set goals, but if you can’t reach them, accept that what you did for the day was enough. As vet students, a lot of us are overachievers, so this is often a concept that needs to be learned. I would have to keep repeating, out loud to myself, that I did X work, and that was really good. It’s the “fake it till you make it”. You force yourself to start thinking positive things and eventually you’ll believe it. My second piece of advice is to cry. Crying is so healthy. It releases necessary pent up emotions, and if you try to fight it, those emotions will only continue to eat at you and grow stronger. My final piece of advice is to get some form of exercise in. I started going on evening strolls every day. I found that it not only released a lot of emotion, but also helped my mind unwind, making it easier for me to study.

The next question the professor asked was “What would [we] like to get from today?” A couple of the responses written down included:

· What’s everyone’s study habits?

· How do you stay motivated?

· How do you keep your head from running in circles all night?

· How do you destress?

I was able to pull away from my experience a stronger individual, however, for some of my classmates, losing a friend has been more than they can handle. The opening question put some of them in a bad head space and it made it particularly difficult to remain focused throughout the rest of the seminar.

I can’t recall most of what was shared, my group didn’t really participate after the first question anyhow, but I feel like I can effectively answer these questions by myself. I study a little bit every day, never leaving anything to the last minute. I set goals for myself, but I no longer beat myself up if I can’t reach them. I recognize the importance of putting my needs first. If I need to “eat”, if I need to “sleep”, or if I need to “talk with a friend”, studying can wait. I understand that I am at such a high academic level that if I am not 100%, then my work won’t be either. And over time, I’ve managed to develop healthy habits to help me unwind, like exercising, or reading a book.

Overall, I found this seminar to be more harmful than helpful. To be completely honest, I felt like I wasted 3 hours of my life that I could have spent studying, or doing something else more beneficial. It was stressful watching my group fall apart to the point where they could no longer participate, and I felt that it was a little late in the game to be teaching us these tools (it would have been more appropriate during first year, when we had a lighter schedule). When you apply for vet school, you’re held to a higher standard. You have to have the top grades, get the experience, and then the letters of recommendation. Everyone tells you “the hardest part is getting in”, which you quickly learn isn’t true, but perhaps if was had this seminar at the very beginning, we would have known that and been equipped with the tools necessary to face the upcoming years. As DVM3 students, we have already been through that stressful application period, and then an additional two years of study. With this, comes experience in learning how to effectively study and cope with the demands placed upon us.