Episode 59: "I'm super excited for spring break!" IVANNASAURUS, Ivanna Marroquin

Summary 

In this episode of VetaHumanz Live, host Victory Knight interviews Ivannasaurus about her experiences in veterinary school, discussing her recent exams, plans for spring break, coping with stress, and adapting her study techniques. Ivanna shares insights into her academic journey, the challenges she faces, and the importance of taking breaks and spending time with family. The conversation highlights the ups and downs of veterinary education and the support systems that help students navigate their paths.

Keywords VetaHumanz, veterinary school, exams, spring break, study techniques, stress management, K-dramas, anatomy, family time

Takeaways

• Ivanna is excited for spring break after a tough exam period.
• She has been struggling with her sleep schedule due to stress.
• Spending time with family is important for her well-being.
• Ivanna finds anatomy of horses more interesting than goats.
• She is learning to adapt her study techniques for veterinary school.
• Procrastination is a challenge she acknowledges.
• Watching K-dramas helps her unwind during breaks.
• She aims to catch up on her studies during spring break.
• There is a sense of hope and light at the end of the tunnel.

Chapters

00:00    Introduction to Veterinary School Journey

02:38    Exams and Academic Challenges

05:18    Spring Break Plans and Family Time

07:36    Overcoming Stress and Sleep Issues

10:09    Learning and Adapting Study Habits

Transcript

Victoria Menendez 

Okay. Hi superheroes. I'm Victory Knight coming to you from Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine League of VetaHumanz. I'm your host on VetaHumanz Live today and we're following up on our journey of our VetaHuman in training, Ivannasaurus So thank you so much for being on our show today. Of course, so tell us what week are we in and how has it been going?

Ivanna Marroquin 

Thanks for having me.

Ivanna Marroquin 

We just finished week nine. So it's been going. We have spring break this week. So it's like really nice. We took so many exams these past two weeks, but it's like, I kind of like that. Cause then you're not too, you're not stressing over spring break too much. We do have an exam coming the week we get back. But other than that, like it's not going to be a terrible week. So super excited.

Victoria Menendez

Okay!

Victoria Menendez

That's good. So tell us, what exams did you have? Like, yeah, no, yeah, time is flying. So tell us what have like your these exams been? How's it been like, how's it been going? I know it's probably been rough.

Ivanna Marroquin 

We're more than halfway, my gosh. Sorry, I just realized that.

Ivanna Marroquin 

Yeah, it's a rough. Okay, so I, I honestly can't even keep track of what we've done. But I think last week we had a GI exam. I still don't know how that went because the grades aren't out yet. And then we also had did we have an anatomy quiz? I don't remember. But we had an anatomy quiz sometime we had this week, though, we've had a neuro neuro exam. We had our histo exam today, we had a

quiz for ANI, we had a quiz for anatomy, and we had a quiz for immunome. So that was fun. But yeah, think I made it through the week and I think I passed everything. I still need to hopefully for neuro, but we'll see because I'm still waiting on those grades. But everything else went pretty good. So I'm glad that this week is over. Over.

Victoria Menendez 

a lot.

and jerk.

Victoria Menendez 

That's good.

Victoria Menendez 

I'm glad that you get to have a break and get to step away from everything for a bit. So tell us, do you have any plans for a spring break?

Ivanna Marroquin 

Yeah.

Ivanna Marroquin 

not really. I mean, my mom's gonna come see me, so that's kind of nice. But like, other than that, no, I don't really have much plans, just a lot of studying. Not even a lot of studying. I'm kind of, I'm gonna give myself a couple days break, like with nothing. But my mom's coming on Wednesday, so I'm gonna start like my break on Wednesday and Tuesday. I mean, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then my other days of this week are gonna be like studying and stuff like that.

Victoria Menendez 

Yeah, I like that. So you kind of get what you can now and then do what you can't like after and then you kind of spend time with her. That's very nice. Has she gone to Indiana before?

Ivanna Marroquin 

That way could just enjoy her.

Ivanna Marroquin 

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, she came. She dropped me off at the start of this semester because it was my birthday. So she ended up staying to celebrate with me because my birthday was the second day of the semester. So, yeah, it's very dull, but it's OK. I don't know if I mentioned this last time, but I've never had to celebrate a birthday like while being in school because it's always been during, at least in my undergrad, because it's always been during my winter break. So I was just like,

That's cool. So I guess the next four years means that I'm not going to spend it with my family.

Victoria Menendez 

Well, I'm glad she was able to come and I'm glad that she's going to be coming again so you guys can spend some time together and see Indiana with a little bit less stress than normal.

Ivanna Marroquin 

Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah, because last time when she came, like, it was we still had to go like go, go, go, because I had to get stuff ready for school and everything. Like, at least now, like, I'm settled in and everything. It's just just spending time together. Really? Yeah.

Victoria Menendez 

That's good. I'm glad to hear it. So tell me, I know it's been a couple rough weeks. What would you say was like probably the hardest thing to overcome? if you've overcome it or over.

Ivanna Marroquin 

hardest thing to overcome?

I have like gotten really bad with my sleep schedule again, but I think that just like always ends up happening when you have a lot of exams coming up. but I don't know if I necessarily overcame that. I'm just like making a statement that that's what something that I have been struggling with recently. But I mean, I guess I'll overcome it with spring break because I am planning on sleeping in. But like, other than that, I don't really know. I feel like everything else has been pretty good.

Obviously, there was just a lot of stress always on the mind these past few weeks. But I guess I overcame the stress simply by still taking breaks every day. I love to watch something while I eat. So I use that as my break time. So I don't do anything. I just let my brain rot for a little bit before I to start doing something else again. But yeah.

Victoria Menendez 

Are you watching anything interesting? you watching?

Ivanna Marroquin 

you're put me out there. no, it's fine. It's fine. I do like watching K dramas. So it's kind of like a controversial topic with a lot of people. feel like people either love them or they hate them. But I think they're pretty good. I just like, it's kind of funny because now that I've like started watching K dramas, even if I watch shows that are like in English,

Victoria Menendez 

did you want?

Victoria Menendez 

Go ahead.

Ivanna Marroquin 

sorry, K-dramas or Korean dramas in case people don't know what that is. But now that I watch shows in English, I can't watch them without subtitles. Because I feel like I'm not hearing them right. I'm like ruined for the rest of my life. I don't know how I'm going to go to the movie theaters ever again. I'm going be what the heck are they saying?

Victoria Menendez 

Good.

Victoria Menendez 

man.

Ivanna Marroquin 

Not really, not for the amount of time that I've spent watching these shows. I know like, okay, I wouldn't say I know how to say anything, but when I hear something like when they say thank you, like I understand that that's thank you. just, I don't know how to say it. So I'm not going to say it and I don't want to butcher it. But yeah, like they'll say thank you or they'll say hello or sorry. So like, I know like those like little simple phrases, but I would not be able to hold. I want to, I want to learn it. I think it'd be cool to learn.

Victoria Menendez 

Mmm. I understand.

Victoria Menendez 

Hmm.

Ivanna Marroquin 

like another language, but I think I need to start with Spanish first.

Victoria Menendez 

I understand. Well, I'm glad that you're taking some time to watch your show and I know you've, I'm glad you've kept that up because I know it's been kind of rough these weeks and stuff. So kind of on the other side, what would you say has been like the most interesting thing you've like learned or something that you really found like fun to learn or do?

Ivanna Marroquin 

Yeah.

Ivanna Marroquin 

Um, recently we've been doing goats and anatomy, so it's very different from the horse. I think I find it interesting that I find horses more interesting than goats because not that I wouldn't want to work with goats because I do, I want to do mixed practice. I want to work with a lot of species, but, um, anatomy wise, like in the lab, I really liked working with the horses because the muscles were bigger. So it was easier to see them. I know that the horse had a lot of muscles, so it was like,

And they like use their muscles more so they were muscular. So you could actually see like meat on their muscles. But with the goats, they're not muscular. So their muscles are really thin and then it's really easy to cut through them. And then their nerves are so, like even though they have like a little bit of like a tension or I don't know if taunt is the right word for that, but they.

they still snap pretty easily. yeah, it's just been harder with the smaller species for ruminant anatomy. I'll say like, think even when we did last semester, when we did small animals, the dogs had, you even though they were smaller species and I had a small dog, I still think that I was able to understand the muscles a little bit better than with the goats, but yeah.

Victoria Menendez 

Yeah.

Victoria Menendez 

I hope that as you go through semester, you're gonna learn to love the goat and you're gonna master their muscles. I know it. I know you will. I know it. Well, do you have any goals for next month then? Now that we're gonna get a break from break.

Ivanna Marroquin 

Hope.

Ivanna Marroquin 

next month.

Well, yeah, I guess like when we come back, we'll be starting April almost, So, I know when we have another week of March, I don't know. I don't know time.

Victoria Menendez 

Yeah, I mean we'll be coming in, yeah?

yeah, we do, but mm-hmm.

Ivanna Marroquin 

But for next month, I think, I think, okay, my biggest goal is during this spring break is to catch up on a lot of stuff that I feel like I've fallen behind on. So like, for example, immunology, immunology. I don't know how to say that too well, but I want to be, after I'm caught up, I want to stay on top of it.

And I know I feel like this is always my goal every single time we're here, but I'm I have a really bad habit of procrastinating. I will admit so. But I think I've gotten better in certain areas, not just everything's a little by little. I give myself little wins.

Victoria Menendez 

I'm glad and it's like that. So you're still learning. You're still going through a lot of material and so definitely learning as you go.

Ivanna Marroquin 

Yeah, and I'm like, I'm definitely seeing that I, my study habit or like my study techniques or strategies are very different from how they were last semester. So that's kind of crazy because I feel like I had to learn new study habits last semester from undergrad because in undergrad, I don't know if like I've mentioned this before, but I didn't really need to study. to like make it anything like that. It's just like the school that I went to was more of like an interactive kind of setting.

So was easier to retain the material while in class instead of just being lectured to all day long. And then also I did have like a pretty nice schedule where I wasn't in class from, you know, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. But yeah, so like when last semester I had to like do different studies study strategies and now I'm realizing that those don't really work for this semester for me. So learning something new all over again. Hopefully by next semester.

Victoria Menendez 

I ya!

Ivanna Marroquin 

I cut it down.

Victoria Menendez 

And it's always going to keep changing. definitely, you definitely will start seeing what is constantly working. You'll stick with it. But it's always going to change, especially for the different classes and stuff. So I understand. And that's good that you're realizing what is working and what isn't working. So that's good. Of course. Well, do you have anything you want to share with our audience? Any words of inspiration or anything?

Ivanna Marroquin 

Yeah, that's true.

Ivanna Marroquin 

you

Ivanna Marroquin 

Words of inspiration. I always, I don't know why every time this question comes around, why I don't come prepared because I know you're going to ask me this every time. But, I feel like we're halfway guys. So how much more can we? No, I don't know. I don't know. I'm just happy we're halfway. We're more than halfway. So.

Like that we can, oh, what's that? What's that saying? Like, you know, there's a, there's a light at the end of the tunnel or something like that. That's how it feels. That's how it feels. like, you know, after this spring break, we are going to have to hit the ground running again, because there's going be a lot of things that are going to be adding up. And then before you know it, um, we're in finals. yeah.

Victoria Menendez 

Mm-hmm.

Victoria Menendez 

But then after finals will be our first whole year of veterinary school done. We will be second year.

Ivanna Marroquin 

Yeah, we'll get to say that we're a fourth of a vet.

Victoria Menendez 

Yeah, we will. So yeah, everything, everything is gonna, it's gonna all work out. Well, I'm so glad. Thank you so much for being on our show today. Of course, you can learn more about the other League of VetaHumanz at VetaHumanz.org If you liked this episode, please subscribe, rate and share with your friends. And remember, use your powers for good.

Ivanna Marroquin 

Work out in the end. It will. It Thank you.

Ivanna Marroquin 

Bye guys.