The Invisible Hook

Sally Moseley, St. Matthew's University

Life as A Vet Student, Honorable Mention

Throughout any given day, between classes, on an isle in the grocery store, walking down to the end of an apartment complex, there are multiple occasions to indulge in apparently meaningless conversations.  Many of us take great advantage of these opportunities to have meaningless conversations for the greater part of our free-time.  This is a wonderful way to discover that meaningless conversations are really only ever seemingly meaningless. 

Sometimes it is the people, sometimes it is the words, and sometimes it is the effect those words have on us even years after they are spoken.  Whatever the reason, when we engage in others, we learn a little bit more about ourselves as human beings. 

Being a vet student, as many of us might have noticed, involves large amounts of time dedicated to academics.  Many times, the aforementioned “free-time” becomes time to get more experience at a clinic, with the ultrasound machine, or with suture materials.  Yet we are willing to do it all and exhaust our major resources: time and energy.  We have dreams, and we love what we do.

Every once in a while, though, we need to have a really good meaningless conversation.

This spring semester, I can recall a single moment captured in a meaningless conversation that will probably stick with me for quite some time.  A friend of mine, who managed to lose technological means of morning arousal, asked if I could wake him up before classes.  Except he did not just want to wake up before classes; he wanted to wake up at the time I got up around 5:00 am, hours before class began.  This coming from someone who had nearly accomplished the conversion into becoming completely nocturnal.

So I laughed.  I made fun of him.  He made fun of himself.  It was a joke, and there was no real point in anything we were saying.

It happened right after he said it was just something he “needed” to do.  I did not really think he “needed” to do anything.  That was until he said, yes, he did, “by the same desire that drives anyone to need to do anything, otherwise we wouldn’t have to do shit”. 

With a mixture of the person speaking, the words he spoke, and the effect those words are sure to have on me in the years to come, I realized what all of us were doing.  We can probably all say that, when it comes right down to it, we do not “need” to cut down on an hour of sleep each night to fit in that little bit of anatomy review before doing clinical rotations.  Maybe we do not “need” to spend lunch with a pile of notecards.

But, sometimes you might be nocturnal with a desire to change yourself.  And sometimes we want to become something that means we must sacrifice those things that do not arouse the same desire.  And sometimes we need a meaningless conversation to remind us that, for whatever reason, we are doing what we are driven to do because it is what we love the most.

Martyrdom, Conjuring, Diablo Triptych

Shanna Nelson, University of Missouri

Creative Corner, Winner

Reese for Real

Julia Hill, University of Georgia

Creative Corner, Winner 

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Merry Kroeger

Foot In Mouth Disease, Honorable Mention

Some of my all-time favorite jokes have been passed down to me by my dad. Others have been told by fellow classmates. Enjoy and laugh!

1) It was bright and early the next morning when Farmer Jones decided to go visit his neighbor, Farmer Brown. You see, a horrendous storm had passed through the night before, (including a tornado), causing a lot of damage to the countryside. Farmer Jones was a bit worried and wanted to make sure his neighbor was alright. So he trekked over to Farmer Brown's house and knocked on the neighbor's front door. Farmer Brown answered.

"That was quite a storm we had last night." said Farmer Jones.

"Yeah it was. Did you have much damage to your barn?" asked Farmer Brown.

"Not bad Farmer Brown. But it could have been worse. How about you? Did you have much damage to your barn?" asked Farmer Jones.

"I don't know. I haven't found it yet!" exclaimed Farmer Brown.

2) Q: What do you call a cow that just had a calf?

A: DE-CALFINATED!

3) My parents worked several summers at a retreat center in Colorado that hosted for families and churches. One of the fun activities offered at the center for the visitors was horseback riding. The following statement was used to describe the trail horses that best fit the needs of the visitors:

"We have horses of all shapes and sizes, folks! We have small horses for small people. We have large horses for large people. We have short horses for short people, and tall horses for tall people. And for people who have never ridden a horse, we have horses that have never been ridden!"  

"It's Not What It Looks Like!"

Blair Dingler, Texas A&M University

Life as a Vet Student, Honorable Mention

As my first year has come to an end, one of my best pieces of advice for future vet students is to find friends as quickly as possible. Spending multiple hours at school learning endless amounts of information is a grueling task, and my friends are definitely the reason I made it out of first year alive. With that said, our friendship hasn’t been smooth sailing from the start. I’m here to tell the story of how social media and iPhones can betray even the most innocent of actions.

After three long days of orientation, all I wanted to do was relax at home. I was hanging out with Heather, whom I had met at a welcome dinner earlier that week and instantly clicked with. I was requesting anyone and everyone in my class to be my friend on Facebook. Shortly after sending Manny (fellow first year) a friend request, he messaged me and told me that he was going to Chimy’s that night with some vet school friends if I wanted to join. Heather and I decided to go and began inviting other people we had met that week. She decided to send a Facebook message to Ben (her first vet school friend) telling him of our evening plans. We were both excited to widen our circle of friends and get to know our classmates better.

We got ready for the night and headed to Chimy’s to meet up with everyone. Ben had never responded to Heather’s message so we assumed he wasn’t attending. Upon arrival, we were surprised to see Ben already there and sitting at a table with Manny and Cameron (first year as well as Manny’s roommate). We all said “Hey!” to one another and started chatting. As I was talking with Manny and Cameron, Heather approached Ben and asked why he hadn’t responded to her message. Ben, who is one of the nicest guys I know, wanted to defend his honor. He hadn’t ignored her message, so he checked his phone to see if he had gotten it. He promptly unlocked his phone with Heather looking over his shoulder, which was a mistake. His phone unlocked to a zoomed in photo of Heather’s face. Zoomed in. On Heather’s face. What he hadn’t remembered is that he had told the guys Heather was coming to Chimy’s. Ben had showed them her profile picture so they would know who she was and had locked his phone with the picture on the screen.

As you can guess, Ben was mortified. When we talked about the incident at a later date, he said he thought his heart stopped beating for a second. Heather, surprised, only uttered a shocked “Oh!” Ben immediately began backtracking, saying,  “It’s not what it looks like! I can explain!” He then proceeded to clarify why a zoomed in picture of her face was the first thing on screen upon unlocking his phone, and they both laughed it off.

Even though I wasn’t directly involved in the situation, it’s still one of my top five favorite stories from first year. It sealed their fate as friends and helped solidify us as a group, but I wouldn’t suggest trying to make friends that way as it can lead to a very awkward encounter.