Raise your hand if you’ve heard this one: “Everyone who enters vet school married, leaves divorced.” I decided to switch fields about 4 months after I got married. With a new marriage to cultivate, of course I was worried about what all this would mean for our relationship. All of my fears got ten times bigger when a vet I barely knew took one look at my ring, and said, “You know, all the people in my first-year class who were married had gotten divorced half-way through vet school.” Gee, thanks for the encouragement! Four years later, I can still remember how my heart sank when she said that. But since then, I have met more people who disprove this theory than support it. I know a couple who moved down to the Caribbean together so that one of them could go to school, couples who spent the majority of those 4 years on opposite sides of the country, and couples who lived separately but were able to see each other a few times a month.
Obviously, since I haven’t started vet school yet, I can’t speak from my own experience on this one, and I would be lying if I denied being worried about what vet school will mean for my marriage. But I am comforted by the success stories I’ve seen first-hand, and I try to take the warnings with a grain of salt. Just because some marriages fail doesn’t mean yours will!
Next post: Starting Over.