Doctor Perez to be exact.

About 10 months ago I graduated from veterinary school and finally got my veterinary degree. After 4 years of grueling, rigorous veterinary courses I was finally able to put on my second graduation gown and graduate with my second degree. And finally, I achieved my dream of becoming a veterinarian.

I’ve been through a lot these past few months that I was away from this blog.  Definitely full of ups and downs and there is definitely a lot to reflect on. I broke up with my ex-girlfriend of almost 5 years right before I ended vet school. I did some traveling within the Philippines and Korea and visited family and friends. I started playing tennis again and started to focus more on my fitness.  I graduated from veterinary school.  I got horribly sick for a month and a half keeping me bedridden for a few weeks. And after my time in the Philippines to mull over things and take a break from everything, I came back home to New York to start a new phase of my life. Now I’m currently in the process of taking the foreign veterinary board exams.

It’s been a whirlwind of sorts.  These last few months have really been something.

After a bit of soul-searching and after a few months of working at my father’s clinic I found myself doing things that I never had time to do when I was in school.  I was able to freely meet up and catch up with friends on a regular basis. I was able to reconnect with my family who I hadn’t seen much of in the last few years. I was also able to finally cook regularly and actually read some books for leisure.  I was able to travel around NYC and surrounding areas just for the heck of it.  I’m even in the midst of learning a new language. I stopped checking Facebook every other moment and decided to focus on the simple (albeit important) pleasures in life.

I needed time off after graduation just to reconnect with everything and everyone that I always had, but that was always on the backburner due to school.

I needed time to focus, readjust and just think–and I got it.

The end result of the entire process so far is this: I’ve become more mature.  I’m now able to let things go that I hadn’t easily given up before.  Now I’m seemingly able to balance my life more than I was able to before and I’m happier for it.

I’ve met some new people as well. People that are fun to be around and also make me happy.  I think it’s important to find and surround yourself with positive people that you’re compatible with.  Not people that will constantly be complaining about your character flaws or being petty with simple things.  (Because let’s be honest, everybody has them.)  We need people that are encouraging and not condescending.  We need to be with people who acknowledge their faults and are also willing to improve upon them.  We need people who are able to compromise with other parties who don’t necessarily have the same view. We also need people to lift us up when we are down.  These are all simple things, but these were all extremely difficult to find, at least for me.

As a new veterinarian and as a person entering this new phase of his life, I realize that there is still a lot I need to learn in terms of handling people and situations.  But my goal is to learn from every experience, however easy (or difficult) that they may be.

So I’m coming back to this blog to revive and finish something that I started all those years back.  I’m going to do my best to post here a lot more often (not with all these extremely long hiatuses) because I had a mission back then to make a record of what I’ve been going through and although I haven’t been keeping up with it, I do want to finish it.

So say good-bye to the Filipino Vet Student blog.  I’ll be starting from scratch this time to chronicle my life as a new veterinarian and a new person.

If you guys decide to follow me on this journey, then I hope you will enjoy the ride.