La La La La… I Can’t Hear You!

This story was originally published on my vet school blog, “Wet Cleanup on Aisle 5.” Would I stand by this advice today? Nope. Student loans in the U.S. are predatory, and the veterinary profession itself is in crisis, with veterinarians more than twice as likely to die by suicide than the general population. That’s all fodder for another post. Caveat emptor.

This post is really about two things:

1) the “old age” aspect of returning to school, and
2) the money aspect of returning to school, and
3) (I lied) the intersection of the two.

For anybody who’s thinking about taking the plunge and who just can’t get over the age thing (it took me about three years to get over it… three years that I could’ve been in school!), I offer you this:

The best piece of advice I got was from someone who was doing exactly what I wanted to do. She went back to school in her late thirties, and she is now a well-known holistic vet. Here’s what she said:

“You can either be forty and a vet, or you can be plain old forty.”

I didn’t have much of a reply to that. I mean, here I was pretending to myself that I was “too old” to go back to school, but the truth is, what else was I going to do with that time? Work in a job I only sort-of liked and then turn forty and be full of angst wondering what if? Nuh uh.

Then there’s the money thing. By the time it’s all over, I expect to have about $200K in school loans. That’s like buying another house. It’s a big chunk of change in and of itself, but when you’re older, it seems more daunting because you’ll have a lot less time to pay it off, as compared to your twenty-something classmates. Not to mention I won’t have increased my earning potential over my pre-vet status. And, unlike many other graduate degrees, you mostly have to pay for it yourself. Stipends and fellowships? Only if you’re reeeeeeally lucky/brilliant/the dean’s niece/etc.

That’s where the title of this post comes in. Sometimes, when I think about the debt thing, I try to shut it out by (figuratively) putting my fingers in my ears and chanting to myself, “La La La La… I can’t hear you!” Because, ultimately, this whole thing is a leap of faith, and I don’t need the devil on my shoulder nagging me and telling me I am being ridiculous.

The little angel will tell you this: none of us is “too old,” and none of us is “too poor” (I mean, who actually has the $200K to plop down for vet school at any point in their life, young or old?). The reality is, we’re too comfortable, and therefore we’re scared. But rather than admitting that, we tell ourselves nice little euphemisms like, “I’m just too old.”

It’s far better to listen to the little angel on your shoulder, who will have you focus on the positive, and think about how badly you want to be a vet. The little angel will have you recall that in 2007, Nola Ochs became the oldest college graduate at 95 years old. That’s a lot more than forty. The little angel will have you calculate your life expectancy and divide your expected debt by your expected number of years left. Is it worth $3500 per year to me to be a vet? You betcha.

The little angel will tell you:

“As you grow older, you’ll find the only things you regret are the things you didn’t do.”

– Zachary Scott

What are you waiting for? It’s not like you’re the only “old” person who wants to go to vet school. 🙂

You can do it.