Maybe I can put off veterinary school forever....

Since I was in 5th grade, I have known that I would eventually be a veterinarian. Although I have always assumed that would lead me to a clinical position, recently I have been thinking about teaching and attempting a dual DVM and PhD program through veterinary school. I also really like ecology so I have been thinking about getting a master's degree before veterinary school and I really want to join the peace corps at some point before I get too tied down with debt, a family, etc. By my count that would put me at no less than 31 before actually graduating with a veterinary degree. But today, we had a guest speaker in my ethology class talking about the kakapo bird in New Zealand. An enourmous effort has been mounted to save this bird and we were talking about ways to use observations about its behavior to help in conservation efforts. It was a really interesting talk in and of itself but at the end of the show he talked about opportunities in through the New Zealand embassy to do biological/conservation research for the Ministry of Conservation for a year after college. Basically, from how he described it you live at a biological station and do research (mainly consisting of hiking around the New Zealand backcountry and watching animals or counting plants). It sounds like a blast to me. So now I will be 32 :) Anyway, as a result of my summer research last year I discovered I am really interested in aquatic medicine because it is still in the experimental stages. My mom likes to tease me about this interest, tellimg me that she will take her future goldfish in to me to have catract surgery, but low and behold a few weeks ago there was a segment on NPR about aquatic veterinarians. I think it is kind of funny, but it is short and cool, too. Well, in the spirit of things aquatic, I am going to go see Life Aquatic with my good friend Reid in a few minutes. Happy Birthday, Becca!