On to 7th!!!!!! =D

 The title says it all; I’ve officially passed my sixth semester of vet school.   

Which I have to say is sooooooo relieving and a great feeling.  My self and others in my semester were stressing quite a bit about these finals; especially when it came to our SAS (small animal surgery) final.  Our class average was one of the lowest in a while and a many students were either failing or just on the cusp going into finals. 

Thankfully sixth semester is done and over with.  Now time to concentrate on seventh semester and continuing my efforts to try and raise enough money to actually pay for my seventh semester.  I still have my fundraiser open and at the moment I am watching as many animals as physically possible to try and raise as much money as I can this break.  Although this means I cannot really enjoy my break but sometimes sacrifices have to be made so one can continue later on.  This is unfortunately one of those times for me. 

On a more positive note, it looks like my brother shall be visiting me come one week time, which I am super excited about.  It has been close to a year since Ive seen him and for those of you who know me and my brother, you will know that we are very close; we used to be almost inseparable.  That has probably been one of the hardest things for me living down here in St. Kitts is the distance from my brother.  So I am super stoked to have him come down here to visit me. 

So that is it for now, I’ll try and write again sometime soon to finish my story about my time here in St. Kitts and also about my trip to Guatemala which was quite the experience.  One last shout out before I head out today, I would like to thank my amazing girlfriend, Lily Prado for her support and for being so amazing during these times, so..........................

BABY!

Much love to all! =)

Jonathan

UPDATE =)

So we had our first final exam today.  It was our SAM exam and I have to say I think it went relatively well.  Unfortunately I did not study as much as i would have liked considering just like most of my fellow peers I have been mainly concerned with SAS (small animal sugery).  Plus for obvious reasons I have been quite distracted, so it has been very difficult to concentrate and study the way I should be studying.

Hence the main reason I am writting to you; thanks to my mom and dad; I have successfully paid off the rest of the bill for 6th semester!!!  YAY!!!!  Major relief (you have no idea!) and thanks to the money gratiously donated by friends; family and random strangers; I think I may have enough to cover most of living expenses for the rest of my time on this island.

Which just leaves around $16,000us of tuition to pay for next semester :S

So please please please if you could just continue to share my story and who knows maybe with a little donation here and a little donation there; I will be able to pay off my last semester on this island and make it safely back to North America.

At least 6th semester is paid off and I can now register for 7th semester and hopefully remain a Greenie after our exam on Wednesday which will most likely be when my next blog post will be.  Best of luck to everyone taking finals this week and to everyone else; Have a great day! :)

Much love to all!

Jonathan =)

Say what?! Final exam today?

So Tuesday morning (umm lets advance that now to Thursday morning :P) and I feel worse (still no change in reagards to that) than I did on Monday. Do not know if it just me sleeping badly or just a combination of life and school. It is definitely difficult to remain concentrated on the task at hand; which is passing this semester as all this would be for nothing if I did not make its to 7th semester. Heck I almost forgot about the PMJ (practice management and jurisdiction) exam I have in a couple of hours; which is definitely never a good a thing to be forgetting.  Luckily I cannot say I am in dire jeopardy of failing PMJ or any of my other classes but I am definitely borderline in my SAS class (Small Animal Surgery). Unfortunately SAS is one of those classes that is just kicking all of our asses; seems like no matter what we are doing as individuals as a class just doesn’t seem to be paying off.  Yet, I have faith; faith in myself and my fellow Greenies that we are going to make it out of this battle together. One thing about our semester is that we have great comradery and I am hoping that all of us would make it to next semester as it sucks to lose someone so close to finishing. It is quite sad; it is like one of those old stories from back in the day that use to talk about situations involving segregation of some kind. Like you were best friends with someone as a kid and then unfortunately something happens and the parents are no longer speaking so you cannot see them anymore but yet every time your paths do cross you give each other the biggest smile; knowing that deep down things have not changed rather just the situation or environment has changed. It kind of feels like that at times when one of your good friends has to repeat a semester over here.

At least I pretty much finished up the last of my tutor sessions yesterday along with my last TA session.  Ran through last semesters final exam for Physio II and I think most of my tutees were appreciative of it and seemed to have found it to be beneficial.  So I will most likely do the same thing next semester; although the time constraints involved will make it a little more challenging.  Sometimes it gets quite a bit challenging trying to tutor, TA, be involved in clubs and local community while trying to stay on top of my studies.  I have to say a part of me wishes that i did not have to do the TAing and tutoring for money; but another part of me really does enjoy teaching or aiding others; so I guess its been a welcomed unfortunate turn of events.

So hopefully we will all survive these next 2 weeks (my tutees being included in this), destroy finals and then we can all thoroughly enjoy our Christmas break. As for myself; my Christmas break will hopefully be very busy as I am planning on watching as many animals as I can. If all goes well with the money raised from watching my fellow classmate's animals that they entrust to me while they are gone over break; I can hopefully raise enough money to cover all of my living expense for next semester. Which means I would only have to worry about covering my tuition for next semester if all goes well back home; which hopefully Ill be finding an answer shortly. Ill be sure to keep you posted ;)

Onto the initial reason I started typing this blog entry this morning was to start telling you about some of my more memorable experiences during my time on this island. So let’s flash back a little bit……..

Duddle duddle duddle...................................

Okay so not the flash back picture; but it was the best i can do :P

 So my first break on St. Kittitia! I have to say April break is just a beautiful break to be here and just chill out and relax. The weather is comfortable and the cruise boats are starting to die down a little so the beaches and Porte aren’t ridiculously crammed with tourist. So if you feel like just lounging on the beach and just chilling out; then April break is definitely for you! :) I spent most of the April break with my good friend Xtina (Christina) and her dog Manson. Who is just a fabulous dog; love this dog! We would pretty much hang out almost every day at the beach and just chill out and watch movies. The dog is a complete goofball and so is my friend haha but that is a story for another day. As for Manson; Xtina would just tell him, “Go, Go, Go Get it!” and the dog would take off chasing who knows what. He would just be gone, then at some point she’d yell at him and he’d come running back. Plus every now and then the dog would go into stalking mode. We’d be chilling at my friend’s apartment; rather I should say someone who become my roommate and my best friend on this island’s apartment. They had this orange cat in the apartment named Jasper and Manson would just go into herding mode (just to make a bit of an “of course moment”; Manson is a Border collie and you say............ :P).

Since I know you were all curious; that be Manson ;)

I just always find it so impressive and was just too funny to watch him herding a cat around a chair. Jasper was Echo’s cat another friend who became a casualty of the island. As I mentioned in my previous post; in that what I believe that gets most students on this island, is the island. Echo was definitely no exception; if anything she is the classic case of what the island can do to someone. Unfortunately it was too much for her and she literally she packed her shit and left. I hope whatever she is doing now; she is happy and stress free.

Which brings my thoughts to second semester which for me was not a stressful semester at all; but it was the first semester where I truly felt the effect this island has on someone and what a devastating role it can play on someone. My good friend Stephanie Baker; who my thoughts still linger on quite regularly. She is one of the most amazing people I was talking about previously that should still be here and the only reason she is not is because of unfortunate circumstances. She is an amazing person and if there was one person that had a major impact in my last five years of life; she would have to be that person. She gave me perspective and insight into things I never really considered before. Something I constantly strive for in life is to try and see the world through other people’s eyes and try not to take things lightly or for granted as sometimes you cannot be aware of something until you get someone else’s perspective on it. She may not realize it, even though I told her many times but having her as a friend helped shape me and make me more complete as a person and if and when I become a veterinarian I would be honoured to have her by my side. As for the rest of second semester; the courses encompassed: Anatomy II; Physiology II; Parasitology & Immunology plus good ole Clinical skills. I also joined a bunch of clubs; ZEW (Zoo Exotics & Wildlife club), SCUBA (scuba club as I became SCUBA certified over break as well….Hooah!!!!!) as well as still being a member of PAWS and becoming its Educational co-ordinator. I posted in a few posts back about going to the school to see the kiddies and teach the about animal welfare and behavior; hopefully shaping the minds of the future. So just in case y’all forget here is a picture of my kids and also of me being awesome at scuba ;)

I be awesome ;)

So second semester finished; I finished up the semester nicely with like a 3.30GPA; finishing Physio II and Anatomy II will an A. Which I was very about considering the previous semester Anatomy I was my most challenging course. So it was a very nice turn around and since I did so well in Physio I & II; I decided to become a Physio II tutor and continue to TA Physio I & VP Physio. I realized I really do thoroughly enjoy teaching people and watching their eyes light up when it finally clicks in their minds. Perhaps a future in Academia? perhaps, but probably not for some time to come. Before considering that option, I want to get my hands “dirty” and see what kind of veterinarian I will become. As I hope I develop into the veterinarian I continually strive to be and that I become the veterinarian I’ve always envisioned myself becoming. That brings me to August break and “hurricane” season. Which I have to say overall was a very uneventful break and not very entertaining as well. I did get the chance to go home; which I was very happy to do and very happy to see my family but unfortunately it was to take care of a bunch of financial stuff which was needed for me to be able to continue in vet school. So I went home; ate waaaaaaay too much food; hung out with my brother; saw my family; saw some friends; bought some clothes, ran around a bunch and then back to St. Kitts. As for it being hurricane season; we had one major depression and when the hurricane did finally hit the island I have to say it was probably better than when we just had tropical storms hitting us. The week before and after the hurricane; it was raining non-stop. The hurricane hits and you get half days of sunshine with a bunch of wind but hardly any rain. Although the wind was quite enough on some days; especially when you were smart enough to think about going to the beach during that kind of weather. I have to say, sand plus massive amounts of wind equals your own personal sand blaster or skin depitheliazer. Ouch :P

On to third semester; hmm what can I say about third semester besides that it kind of sucked. Personally third semester was my least favourite semester; it was a bunch of classes involving pure memorization. We had to take: Bacteriology, Pharmacology, Pathology and Virology. Granted, pathology although we were bombarded with information was quite an interesting class and gave me a different perspective on pathology which I found very intriguing. Virology could have been an amazing course if perhaps structured a little better; as the viruses we were being taught about correlated well with our pathology class in a way but we did not have the time to properly absorb the information and come finals I have to say that the viro exam was probably one of the most stressful exams I have ever taken in my life. I do not really stress much but if you asked my Jenn K she would say “you were freaking out!” Which I totally was. I was just not prepared for that final; there was a period of about a week that I was not feeling well because I was most likely going through another bout of kidney stones. Then finally when I was feeling well again; I lost a week of studying and it was just so difficult to get caught up to the material. The way I explain third to people; is that the first half of the semester is pretty easy but do not let it get you into a sense of false security because the second half of the semester increases exponential in regards to the amount of material they expect you to learn. It’s like building a house; take your take with the foundation; nice and easy work then boom; walls and roof go up in a day. Well I was not ready for the roof or the walls; and my anxiety definitely showed. In the end I passed third semester relatively well. I dropped a full letter grade in viro (from B to C); wish always sucks but was totally fine by me considering the other option was failing the course and having to repeat; obviously something I could definitely not afford to do.

 Third semester done! Onto my first Holiday season on the island; which was a most excellent break :)  On that note; I think I shall leave you for now as I have my PMJ exam in a little over an hour from now. Ill finish up semester 4,5 and well 6 next time and I shall leave you with this pic I came across that just lightened up my day, so enjoy! ;)

Because, every day I be shuffling! ;)

So wish me luck!

Jonathan =)

Ugh Monday.............

Happy Monday Everyone!!!
 You know when you wake up Monday morning and all you can think of is this..........

You know you are tired; but your teacher says Buttress is class and all you can think of is Beavis & Butthead.....................

"hehe hehe; she said Butt!......haha Ya!"  *sigh* 

Boy how much I disliked that show back in the day; yet I can't help but think of them from time to time.   On a side note; I did not realize the Garfield picture was an animated GIF~!!.  Alright; Monday got a bit better haha.  Thank you Garfield; I knew you were one of my favourite cartoon characters for a reason :)
So start off; I have to say that I am very touched by the reaction of some people to my current situation.  I kind of have been ignoring facebook for the last little while; as I have been trying to concentrate on my schooling as well as dealing with things back home and my current situation over here.  Not to mention I am still having to deal with tutoring and my TA sessions for the school.  What I saw when I logged in last night was a bunch of people sharing my story and asking their friends and family to help out if they.  I cannot say how much I appreciate it and how warming or soothing it is to the soul to see such a response.  What is even more impressive is the generosity of some; I would never judge on the amount given for any charitable situation; what may seem like nothing to one person may very well be quite a bit of money to another.  So I thank everyone for their donations and I will definitely keep you posted as things progesss but as of right now; according to my ChipIn page I have raised: $1,265~!!!!  One person donated $500 and a couple of my friends donated $100us.   Plus a couple of the people I tutor also made quite generous donations to my cause.  Just really amazing and I thank you; and I thank all of you for your donations and the time you have put in on behalf of my cause.   On top of the random facebook posts all over the place of late, my girlfriend and one of her better friends have been apparently writting to the Ellen Degeneres show to try and get my story noticed by her.  Apparently she provides aide to worth people in need.  I cannot say that I am in more need than some amazing people out in this world who are probably in a worse situation than myself; as I would not like to compare the cost of my educational future to the cost of just pure living but still it would be quite impressive and amazing if Ellen did not me and did look into my situation to help me out.  Plus on top of it; I just love Ellen; i think she is hilarious and I think it would be pretty friggin awesome to meet her in person.  Although I know she is a very busy person; so I guess a check would do just as well haha ;)

Speak of the Devil; okay not really because it is not like a bad thing has shown itself just as I was talking about the situation.  Mini-subject change, but have you ever met someone that uses those types of expression poorly or just waaaaay out of context?  what i find even more humeous is that most of the time they have been saying that way for a long time and no one has ever corrected them.   Anyways; my apologies; so what i was saying intially; just as I was mentioning my gf and writting to the Ellen Degeneres show; my friend Nely write me on Skype and say to me: "hey hope u dont mind. i signed you up for this: http://www.ellentv.com/be-on-the-show/433".  What are the odds?  Plus once again I am touched deeply and no not in the way some of your dirty minds may be heading but in the way of just feeling overwhelmed with the way people are reacting around me.  I expected a bit of a response but I did not expect the internet to explode with my name all over the place.  Ive said it before and I am sure I will continue to say for it some time to come; but thank you so much to everyone for your time, effort and money :)

Hence my past last night on FB was "Just logged onto facebook after being AFK for a couple of days to see messages posted left and right about my current situation. From the bottom of my heart; thank you to everyone for the effort you are making on my behalf. I cannot say how touched I am. Thank you :)".  Which I cannot say enough and that will increase exponentially the more funds I raise for my cause.  

Unfortunately every time I plan on logging into my blog and plan on talking to you about my past experiences at this school; I end up side tracking about something else and then feel as if it would be too much to start talking about my experiences after babbling for the last little while about other topics.

That being said it is Monday; I will hopefully be done all my tutor and TA session by Thursday; I still have to write like a 2000word essay for December 13th about my VIDA trip to Guatemala as it was paid for by SCAVMA (our student school body); hence I need to write about my experiences while on the trip or else I'll have to pay the money back to school; which obviously I cannot do :P   So this week will be a bit for me; but I will try and post a little mini-something later on in the week just giving you an update.  Once our final exams are over (last one is on December 13th); I should have plenty of time to tell you about all of my amazing experiences on and off this island.

Until then; have a great day everyone and hope to blog again soon :)

Just because it always puts a smile on my face :)

 Much love!

Jonathan =) 

TGIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

TGIF!!! I mean TGIS!! (works for the other two days) :P

I just wanted to write a quickly post; as I know you were all anxious to read more about what I have to say :) Unfortunately this next week and a bit is exam week; so it will be quite difficult for me to post anything on a regular basis or to at least describe all of my trials and tribulations over the last year. 

As I was thinking to myself about that thought; I had a side-thought (which tends to occur quite often with that brain of mine); which was just a general thought about the people I have met or have come to known while being on this island. 

 

I have to say that there have been many ups and downs over this last year and a half; some great people have come into my life and some other great people have sadly left us.  Not as the way you may be thinking originally but if you have read my previous posts you will understand the hardships that we as students incurred while being and living on this island.  Unfortunately this island is sometimes too much for some people and I think that more than anything is what gets people.  This school is amazing for giving us all the opportunity to be here but it is a harsh master as well in that there is very little leniency in regards to failure.  Fail one class you get a warning, you fail another class the following semester or you fail two classes in one semester and you are out.  I can understand the strictness employed by the school due to the over-whelming amount of students they accept but I do not think the school takes into account the effect this island has on all of us.  It irritates me so much to know and see good people that would have made GREAT veterinarians leave this island due to unfortunate circumstances that the school did not deem important enough to allow them a second change.  Threatened on a daily basis by a member of the local community? Sorry not good enough.  An error in prescription that resulted in excessive mood swings and anxiety attacks? Sorry not good enough.  Failing a class by one percentage point after going into the final with an 86 because you were sick all morning with a migraine? Nope, not good enough.  I know some of you disagree and that is okay, but this is my opinion.  What is even more frustrating is that the people that got kicked out were good, hard working people who would have made a difference in this world as a veterinarian.  Yet some of the people I see throwing their education and money away on a weekly or daily basis get to stay because they get a fake ass note from their doctor saying they have ADD and voila! Welcome back to Ross U.  Obviously the school is not aware of this situation and I would not ever expect them to encompass that into their process of re-acceptance.   I do personally believe that should definitely take into consideration what it took for most of us to come down here and how much time, money and effort we invest to move to a new country to try and achieve our goal of becoming veterinarians.  Plus now that Ross University is corporately owned by DeVry Incorporated; I doubt the process will ever change or become more empathetic to the obstacles we faced to come down here and continually face on a daily basis.

As for myself; I agree with one of my reader’s comments (thank you Judy for sharing your thoughts) in that I should describe my situation to you a little more.  Unfortunately like I said finals are just around the corner; so I am doing my best to deal with school; while dealing with problems back home; while dealing with ways to try and stay in school here.  I was planning on giving you; my reads more detailed insight into my life and tribulations I have encountered over the next couple of posts.  Considering her questions were quite valid questions and I am sure there are others asking the same thing.  So to respond to her questions………………..

Grants: I have searched left and right in regards to grants; the ones available are either for US residents or minorities.  Which unfortunately I am none of those.

3^rd party service (ie: personal loan; student loans or companies that lend money out to students): unfortunately some of them will not give money to a school situated in the Caribbean and the others demand a US co-signor with the credit to back me as it more of a personal loan than anything. 

My own backing system back home; I am tapped out.  I have a $115,000 student line of credit (maximum a Canadian bank will give for a veterinary student) and mom took out a personal loan of $25,000 to help me.  So  unfortunately she can no longer help me anymore as well.

As for the “plan”; it is difficult for me describe my plan.  As I am not entirely sure how much I need; it is an ever evolving situation that is constantly shifting.  If I get no help from anyone (including family + banks back home); then I need at least $20,000 to pay next semester, and this is not including the rest of this semester that I have not paid as of yet.  Which is another $10,000.  So around $30,000US to raise enough funds to be able to pay for my last semester on the island.  Then that leaves my last year of clinical year; which I am not planning on trying to raise money for but if people so want to donate my cause; then I would forever be grateful; as it would save me from having to stop my school for whatever period of time to be able to raise the money to be able to pay my clinical year.   So at the moment; it stands at $30,000us or if I need to break out down to the bare essentials; which would just cover tuition fees; then that would be around $25,000.   I am hoping to get some more help from back home and so if that occurs; obviously that amount would drop.   I figured if someone was truly serious in helping to that degree they would ask those more finite questions; such as how much I pay per month for food, gas, rent…etc.  I suppose it would be of a benefit for someone in my situation just to divulge everything and avoid having someone take that step which would involve contacting me to get the information first; rather than just choosing to make random donation in the moment.

As for currently salary; well I am a vet student; so technically it is Zero.  Although I am employed by the school as a TA (Teaching Assistant) for Vet Prep Physio (like intro course before starting vet school) & for Physio I.  I also tutor all three physiologies and from time to time will help out if I can.  So even though it sounds nice; the amount of money I make from the school barely makes a dent in anything and at the moment it is probably the only thing allowing me to eat or pay for my gas to get to school on a weekly basis.  I just made my last payment on my electric and internet bills; but as for the December payments……..*shrugs*; I am hoping I get lucky between now and the end of December.

As for how animals affect me and what is my life story as to why I want to be a vet.  I think that is explained relatively well in my previous blog posts for those who are curious about my life before I came to this island and for the first 4mths on this island.  Just on that quick read you can see how animals affect me and what I am willing to do for them.  I am an active member of many clubs, I was part of the Sea Turtle Conservation Project as well as part of the Bat Conservation project on this island.  Any more details will come as I blog, I thank you for your comments; but it would have been the longest blog post ever if I would have discussed all those things in one sitting.  One things about humans in this day and age (and I do not mean to offend); but we have SHORT attention spans and many people would not have been willing or able to read more than a 1000word essay about my plight.  So I thought a short intro was better than a long drawn out story.  So……………………………..more to come :)

 To all Rossies come and gone; to anyone who randomly comes across this blog, I wish you all the best and that you continue to follow your dream despite whatever detours or roadblocks appear to stop you, for without effort there is no success.

Much Love!

Jonathan =)