Change of Goals

I've been sitting here for a while now trying to get all of my technology ready for the semester. If you know me, then you know I suck at this stuff. Usually I just ask my roommate to do all of this but he's sleeping and I don't really wanna wait. And I think I've figured it all out.

I'm updating my iPad right now to a new iOS so I can get the app Splashtop on it since it needs at least 5.0 and I haven't done an update in a while.. I'm trying out Audionote on my Mac to use for lectures. You can record the lecture while you take notes, which is pretty nice. I like having both. But for my repro class, there is also some drawing to do that'll help with the studying but that is hard to do on the laptop. So I guess I could take notes on the iPad since I can draw there too but I'm picky and don't like the keyboard I have for it. I'm just not as fast on it as I am on my Mac. So I tried figuring out a way to display my Mac screen on the iPad so I can take notes on the computer but skip over to the iPad for drawing. But I wanted it all on one file, the recording, notes and drawings so I literally needed exactly what is on the Mac to display on the iPad. I asked my computer smart friends and they didn't know what to tell me.

Well, I guess this time I might be smarter than them! I found Splashtop which lets me access my mac from the iPhone and iPad. I'm still trying it all out. It worked pretty well from the phone and I'm updating the iPad now to see how that works. I'm just worried about the audio. Will it record from both devices at the same time? Cause that might suck. We'll see. But if it does work out, I did it all by myself! haha

Splashtop and Audionote are the two apps I'm using if anyone's interested.

But now for what I really wanted to write about as indicated in the title: Change of Goals!

My whole life I wanted to be a vet. Here and there, I had other ideas but I've always come back to the same dream of becoming a vet, mainly a food animal vet or maybe a mixed practice. But this spring, that dream changed. I thought about the cost of vet school, the stress of getting in and being in vet school, the starting salary and the job market itself. It just does not look good. At all.

Over the last year, I've been thinking about also getting my PhD after vet school so I could do research as well as being a vet with the ultimate goal of working at a vet school (so teaching, practicing and researching). But then it got me thinking, if I really want to do research, I don't necessarily need to be a vet. And I could still teach at a vet school. I just wouldn't be able to work in the hospital.

So I decided to not go to vet school and go straight to grad school for my PhD if they take me without a masters. If not, a masters I will get I guess. All this vet school skipping is gonna save me around $150k and I also have better job and starting salary prospects. So far, the goal is to work for the CDC eventually in infectious disease research, hopefully with zoonotic diseases. And I'm hoping to be able to travel and work abroad as well, maybe South America or Africa. I have big dreams, I know, but you gotta dream of something first and then you can work your way towards it.

Someone said they were disappointed in me for giving up on my dream, but I don't think it's giving up. It's just a change of plans!