Biting my nails, jumping at every notification, calling my parents and throwing myself into back-to-back overnight shifts just to stay busy — I spent every moment hoping the acceptance email would finally come.

But in the quiet moments, the questions crept in.
What if I wasn’t good enough?
What if everything I had worked for still wasn’t enough?
Would the numbers fall in my favor?
What would I do if they didn’t?

And then it arrived.

My stomach dropped as I saw “North Carolina State University,” followed by the one word I had prayed for, cried over and hoped for with every fiber of my being: Accepted.

* * *

Day One of veterinary school should have been the most exciting day of my life — but I was a mess of nerves.

What if I didn’t make any friends?
What if I didn’t fit in?
What would life be like?

I made small talk and awkwardly found my way into a group of girls who would soon become so much more — my lab partners, my study buddies, my closest friends and, eventually, my colleagues.

We walked into the lecture hall together, nerves buzzing, our quiet laughter filling the space around us. Then, suddenly, the room fell silent. 

A professor stepped to the front. And she said the words I didn’t know I needed to hear: “You belong here.”

* * *

Clinical year was long-awaited, and I should have been filled with excitement — but instead, I was a mess of nerves.

What if I wasn’t ready?
What if I forgot everything I had learned?
What if I let someone down?
What would it be like to finally be in the hospital instead of the classroom?

I tied on my name badge, grabbed my stethoscope and walked into rounds beside classmates who were feeling the exact same thing. Soon they became so much more — my teammates, my sounding boards, the people who understood every long night and hard case without explanation.

We stood quietly together, coffee in hand, nerves buzzing, trying to look more confident than we felt. Then the clinician turned to us and smiled. “You know more than you think you do.”

* * *

The rest of fourth year was a blur. Between balancing cases, figuring out life, studying boatloads of material, finishing research projects, cementing everything we had learned, gathering recommendation letters and trying to figure out how to be adults in the real world, we had a lot to juggle.

Our inboxes were filled daily with countless emails: some important, some forgettable, most just noise. But there were a few we truly waited for — the ones that carried everything we had worked toward.

“Congratulations, you PASSED the NAVLE.”
“We can’t wait to see you in June — congratulations on the Match.” “You’re hired.”
“Graduation checklist complete.” 

We’ve been accepted. We belong here. We know more than we think we do. We passed the test. We matched. We got hired. We are graduating. We did it. 

We are going to be veterinarians.