u/GrapefruitTasty7947

I feel completely burnt out and incapable. I've always struggled with my confidence but it has hit an all time low. i feel i will be a terrible vet who cant think critically or work through cases. I'm stupid as f**k. i can take exams easily; I'm a great test taker. but applying myself- doing clinical skills, talking with people, working through case examples..(aka actual useful things I'll need to be a vet) I blank and lose all confidence. "but it just takes time!!" yeah, but what if after all this time I still suck. I'm one of those stereotypical students that has always wanted to be a vet since I was little so I followed that "calling" but I feel like my personality is not cut out to be a doctor. I'm a terrible leader; I cannot even imagine being in charge and making decisions in less than 3 years. I'm also in a place where I know I need to get out of my comfort zone in order to grow/gain confidence but i just feel stuck where I hesitate to do anything. I didn't do anything vet med related this summer because I was scared of embarrassing myself. Trust me I know I need to get out there and do things in order to become confident and grow but something always stops me!!!! I can't give up; I've made it this far and already 100k in debt. Plus there's literally nothing else I can see myself doing, yet still can't imagine me as a vet?? I feel like I've lost myself getting into vet school and now that I'm here, I'm stuck. I tried reaching out to my school's mental health services but they're booked for like 3 months. I struggle to make friends and didn't make any close ones during first year. Just feeling lost. I know it's up to me to change, just needed to vent into the void.

Hi all,

I am an incoming second year vet student. I am wanting to go into shelter medicine immediately after graduation. I just can't decide if I should try for a shelter med internship, a small animal rotating internship, or try finding mentorship at a shelter. I have a shelter that I've been regularly working at since high school who offered me a job after graduation as they're drowning with just one doctor. I am very close to this doctor and he's a great mentor, I just worry that it would be too much for him to mentor me straight out of school (I already know I'm going to need a lot of hand holding because I struggle with confidence) and deal with his regular duties as the only vet on staff. Plus I think it would be valuable for me to see other shelters and how they run and practice medicine. Since shelter med is a relatively new path for vets, a lot of the shelter vets I know worked in some kind of GP or ER prior to switching. But tbh I have no desire to work GP, and although I'm not opposed to ER, I would much rather go straight into shelter med. But if it would be beneficial to have some sort of GP/ER foundation prior to doing that, I would consider. I guess I'm searching for some other input from other people in shelter med. I've connected with the shelter vets at my school and got some useful advice but I still find myself wanting more opinions. I know I have some time but if I'm going to be going through the match process for internships I need to start getting involved more to build an application.

Hi all,

I am an incoming second year vet student. I am wanting to go into shelter medicine immediately after graduation. I just can't decide if I should try for a shelter med internship, a small animal rotating internship, or try finding mentorship at a shelter. I have a shelter that I've been regularly working at since high school who offered me a job after graduation as they're drowning with just one doctor. I am very close to this doctor and he's a great mentor, I just worry that it would be too much for him to mentor me straight out of school (I already know I'm going to need a lot of hand holding because I struggle with confidence) and deal with his regular duties as the only vet on staff. Plus I think it would be valuable for me to see other shelters and how they run and practice medicine. Since shelter med is a relatively new path for vets, a lot of the shelter vets I know worked in some kind of GP or ER prior to switching. But tbh I have no desire to work GP, and although I'm not opposed to ER, I would much rather go straight into shelter med. But if it would be beneficial to have some sort of GP/ER foundation prior to doing that, I would consider. I guess I'm searching for some other input from other people in shelter med. I've connected with the shelter vets at my school and got some useful advice but I still find myself wanting more opinions. I know I have some time but if I'm going to be going through the match process for internships I need to start getting involved more to build an application.

basically the title. i have an iphone 17 but was looking for something else to take pics. preferably something small i can put in my backpack and under $500. any recommendations? or, as someone who never got into photography, do you think my iphone will suffice?

so… my friend invited me on a 19 day trip out west. we’re visiting many national parks and hiking. we’re averaging 10 miles a day with a 20 mile hike at the very end. she is an avid hiker who works out everyday. i’ve done a handful of hikes in my life and i don’t regularly work out. she kept warning me that i needed to start conditioning.. well now the trip is a week away and i haven’t done anything. i’m 23 and normal weight, no health issues. how screwed am i for this ??? kinda freaking out now…

i work at a dog grooming salon (USA) as a bather and get paid hourly. i’ve been working there for 6 years. (not my primary career choice; i work seasonally as i am a full time student). i do not get tips. according to the owner, my tips go “back to the buisness”. her justification is that most bathers get trained to be groomers and will use the tip money you make as a bather to “pay” for the training she gives as well as the grooming tools. the thing is, i am and will never be trained as a groomer. is this legal? some people tip a lot of money and over 6 years i’m not sure how much money i’ve lost out on because of this policy…

are there any other stores that sell rookwood pottery other than the shop in OTR? i live in the Mason area so would love to find something a bit closer.

this was my first time going to the indy500 and first time watching a car race. so maybe i’m just out of the loop. but is it normal for people to just throw their empty cans under the bleachers when they finish them??? i witnessed multiple people do it and when i was leaving the ground under the stands was just covered in cans and bottles. at first i thought maybe they just fell accidently until i saw people purposely throwing them down. is this socially acceptable at these events? im genuinely curious because i was appalled.

Opening up to my mom has always been difficult for me. I find it much easier to open up to friends, boyfriends, and even my dad. Something about my relationship with my mom feels different. I’m always afraid of how she’ll react to things. Her responses often be disappointment, judgment, or contempt.

Our conversations tend to stay very surface level. We almost never talk about emotions or anything deeply personal. She always says she’s there for me and doesn’t understand why I “hide” things from her, but I constantly feel anxious and nervous around her. I think a big reason for that lately is how judgmental she’s always been about my dating life.

I didn’t have my first boyfriend until I was 18, and instead of seeming happy that I had finally met someone, she mostly made me feel guilty for spending time with him because it meant she would be alone. My second boyfriend was when I was 21, and the judgment only intensified because he lived in a different country and we were long distance.

Now I’m almost 23 and in my third relationship. He’s also in a different country (but we met at my school in America) and he’s moving to America next year. This is the most nervous I’ve ever been to talk to her about someone I’m dating. It took me a long time to finally tell her about him because I already knew she wouldn’t approve. I told her about him about a month ago, and we haven’t talked about him since.

I’m going next month to visit him, and I still haven’t told her because I know she’ll be upset. She knows I was considering going, but she’s never once asked questions about him or shown any interest in getting to know him. All I feel from her is judgment, and it hurts because it feels unfair. It shouldn’t always have to be my responsibility to bring up what’s happening in my life. She could show interest too.
Then she gets upset that I don’t tell her things, but she makes it so hard to feel comfortable opening up. It was manageable when I was away at college, but now that I’m living at home for the summer, we interact almost every day. Everything feels awkward, like there’s something both of us want to say but can’t. It’s gotten to the point where I try to avoid her as much as possible.

I feel lost. Part of me wants to try to have adult conversations with her about this but another part of me just wants to shut her out. But I fear shutting her out more will just grow the tension. She doesn’t have a lot of people in her life (she’s divorced, my sister and I are soon moving out, she’ll be living alone), so i’m not sure if this is all rooted in a fear of abandonment or something. I hate the feeling of hiding something but also something in my mind is constantly telling me not to tell her things. some days i just sit with a pit in my stomach trying to build the courage to talk to her about something other than “how was your day?”.
TL;DR: I’ve always struggled to open up to my mom because I fear her judgment and reactions. She says she wants me to tell her things, but whenever it comes to my relationships, I feel met with disappointment instead of support or interest. Now that I’m living at home again, the tension and lack of communication between us feels worse than ever, and it’s gotten to the point where I avoid her because I don’t know how to fix our relationship.