As I lay here in bed at 3 am, wide awake from my newly prescribed allergy meds, I can’t decide if being able to breath and not scratching out my itchy eyes is a good trade off for my insomnia. I already suffer from routine insomnia so medications make it so much more pronounced and it can be difficult to quiet the random thoughts that fly through my cerebral cortex during these early hours of the morning. If nothing else, this morning I decided it would be an opportunity to use this time to reinvent my languishing blog. My inspiration has come mostly from a life change in the near past and the Erma Bombeck writer’s workshop I attended last year. My creative juices had been pretty much squelched due to an incredibly stressful day job that later led to corporate downsizing and needing to decide what I would do for the remainder of my career. Most would think for a veterinarian that would be a no brainer. I had already done private practice and industry and had little to no desire to pursue these paths again. I left my options open and while I was job hunting, I worked by tail off doing relief work and vaccine clinics. There are many advantages to relief work such as making your own schedule, no chronic case management, and not dealing with the headaches that come with the job of an associate veterinarian or worse yet, a practice owner. Despite the advantages, it still was an exhausting and sometimes stressful job that really cemented the fact that I could do not do private practice for the rest of my life. When looking at job postings for corporate jobs, it usually made my chest tighten a bit and was overall a daunting thought. I’m usually a glass half empty sort of gal and guessed I might have to settle for a job that I really didn’t want to do long term. Sure it could be temporary but there were so many questions. Would we have to move? Would I like the job? Could I live with settling for a job just to have one? I tried not to panic when I didn’t get responses from applications submitted or lack of any job that really seemed up my alley.
This is where the networking comes in. Network…..ALWAYS. Meet people, give them your card, know what they do, and don’t burn bridges! Job experts say that 75% of available jobs never get posted because it is who you know and that is how those positions are filled. I firmly believe this after my recent job loss and then hunt. All the connections I had from my industry job bent over backwards to help me. It ended up being a colleague I worked with before I was in vet school that turned me on to the job that I ultimately accepted. It taught me to never settle but follow your passion and love your job. Life is way too short to be miserable in a place where you spend a significant portion of your life. Trust me…I know as I did not follow my own advice.
I am now teaching eager students following their passion to be veterinarians. They face a steep uphill battle in this profession but it is my job to help prepare them to face the challenge and be successful veterinarians. And…. I love every minute of it.
This new job forced me to move from my long time home of 22 years, leave many incredible friends, and suburbia. I now live in a somewhat rural area of East Tennessee where I live 1.5 hours from the nearest Target and Panera Bread and 4 hours from the long time friends I have in Dayton. I do have a wonderful new family of friends and co-workers who all have the same mission. Teach with excellence and make frequent trips to the suburbs of Knoxville to get our big city fix.
So in the end, I have reinvented my blog to a new format and webpage, but more importantly, I have reinvented myself.
My blog is now http://www.vetmanias.com. My mission is to tell stories that might inspire, teach, and make people laugh. They will likely be animal oriented (that is my life after all) but I’m likely to throw in other topics that inspire me or I am passionate about as well. You can read my previous blog at http://thecatboxtimes.blogspot.com.