You took pictures of WHAT?

Honorable Mention, Foot in Mouth Category
Courtney Deer, Mississippi State

Like most former sorority girls my camera never leaves my purse. I'm known for being the paparazzi at any and all events - the best and worst of times. My camera has also been instrumental in my veterinary learning experience. During anatomy I've always snapped pictures and made videos to include in my study guides. This summer I found out that I should probably have two separate flash drives for social life and school.

A few of my sisters and I went out to Happy Hour once we all returned home for summer break. We chatted away, snapped some pictures and swapped stories. One of my sisters asked to see my camera so she could look at what kind of fun things I'd done in veterinary school. She's one of my closest friends, but she'd been out of the country for the better part of the last year so we'd been unable to talk as much as we usually do. She flipped through the pictures, laughing at some of them, and then paused. Her face changed from a smile to a frown. She tilted the camera, gasped and threw it on the table. "PLEASE TELL ME THAT'S NOT WHAT I THINK IT IS!" I picked up the camera to look at the offending picture and immediately burst into laughter. The picture was of the genitals of a male horse, spread out over a table, with a probe pointing to various anatomical features. She knew it was my hand because of my usual manicure, which could be seen through the white latex gloves.

Another sister at the table quickly snatched the camera to see what the picture was. Before too long the entire table of my friends had seen it and were sharing in either laughter or disgust. Once I regained my composure I had to explain that as a veterinarian we have to know EVERYTHING about EVERY animal - even their unmentionables. They made me swear to get a new flash drive specifically for school, which is probably a good investment. In the wrong hands that picture would be impossible to explain!