Samantha Kelm

It’s no secret that the road to getting into vet school is…..rough. Focusing on your grades, trying to gain animal experience, being involved, and also having a social life. It seems almost impossible to do it all. Then one day, you get the letter or the call and it was all worth it because you are going to be a veterinarian! It’s almost an overwhelming feeling of relief that everything you have worked for the past 4+ years is all of a sudden coming true. The excitement almost doesn’t feel real until you get here. But now you are here, and then what? The road doesn’t get smoother, but it is different. You are now surrounded by people who once all had the same dream as you and now you are all living it. Up until this point, you were competing with these same people for a spot in veterinary school, but now they are your peers and the relationship is completely different.

I was a little more than excited when I found out I would get to head home this summer. I may still be five and half hours from home, almost at the Canadian border, but at least I’m in home sweet New York. I am spending the summer completing an internship at a dairy farm that milks a little over 3,000 head. I have been spending my time doing some reproductive work, herd health work, and focusing on milk quality. When I applied for this internship, I did not expect to get it. There were a few reasons for this.