Essay Example: If I had the chance to ask John Nelson

For the last 10 out of 16 years, John Nelson was a practicing veterinarian in Winfield, KS. Now, he remotes his life to covering 15 counties in our state for the department of animal health. John spoke to our class last Friday about the ins and outs of vet school, what it takes to be a licensed vet, and what most people do not know about our beloved animal doctors.

At the young junior high age was when John knew he wanted to become a veterinarian. He faced his first challenge when applying for vet school. At the time when he graduated from Southwestern, there was only 27-28 schools that took in kids at the higher level. John explained that when he applied at KSU, their requirements were a little different. You do not have to have a degree or graduate with a degree, instead you just need to finish your spring semester with 64 credits of the required re-requisite courses. Luckily, John did that and graduated from SC with a BS in biology. When John went on to explain how the application evaluation was handled, one thing he said really stuck out to me. He stated that a minimum of 500 hours of experiences is recommended but 1000 hours would be great and may get you a secondary application evaluation. 

Mr. Nelson went on to explain how detrimental and time draining veterinarian school can be. Throughout your whole four years you are taking a minimum of 20 hours for the first six semesters. You will have no summer break after your junior year because that is when you start going into clinical rotations at either a teaching hospital or an internship. 

When I was a little girl I always thought that being a vet would be so much fun. I would not only get to see animals each and every day, but heal them. However, this change dramatically once I hit the age of 10. Now, after hearing John speak about his training, his preparation, and all that he had to go through with schooling, I wondered why I ever wanted to be one myself. These veterinarians go through as much schooling as human doctors and come out with two times as much debt as well as a horrible pay salary. In addition, many of these doctors see the cruelty of people and how they treat their pets or domestic animals by themselves. 

If I had the chance to ask Nelson three questions about either his practice or what he has accomplished over the past 16 years, I would ask him these three things. “If your child wanted to follow in your footsteps, and be a veterinarian, would you push them in a different direction just because of your outcome?”, “How do you feel about euthanasia?”, and lastly, “Did you ever do anything if there were obvious signs that an animal you were treating was being abused by its owner?”. 

I really enjoyed listening to John Nelson speak about his passion with animals and his career with veterinary. I wholeheartedly understand why he had to stop practicing and start working the job now because of what strain it put not only him but also his loved ones as well. We would not be anywhere today without veterinarians because to some humans, animals are like their offspring.