We all took a personality test that defined us as a color...green/yellow/blue/orange. I was predominately green (the best color), which shows that I am more logic-based with my decisions, like puzzles, appreciate order, etc. My lowest color was blue, the emotional color. We had to wear our colors for the rest of the weekend on our name badges, so anyone who came up to me would think, "She'd probably be good to study with but completely lacks compassion". In the same token, anyone I meant with blue as their first color was probably too emotional to be my friend anyway. The color-personality workshop took about 6 hours. Yep. 6 hours of placing us all into strictly defined personality stereotypes and learning what that meant.
Later, we received a very dull lecture from the class psychologist. She brought 2 construction-paper cut-out heads and told us the life story of the fictional characters "Tina & Rico". Tina was from Colorado the oldest of 6 children, the first in her family to graduate from college, a first-generation US citizen, and will waitress her way through vet school. Rico, on the other hand, comes from a wealthy family and he just finished up his masters at the University of Chicago. He has a trust fund and wont have to work through school. He enjoys traveling, but like Tina, also enjoys hiking. Why do we care? Because we, as vet students, need to recognize that we all wear "different sunglasses" from our past experiences, and we must realize that in order to work well with others. My average class age is 26. Maybe I'm wrong, but I bet we've all dealt with people from different backgrounds before.
The next day, we discussed, in depth, the difference between "Mattering & Marginality". In small groups, we had to tell a time when we felt like we mattered and a time that we felt marginalized.
We also had to bring an object that symbolizes veterinary medicine to us. I didnt realize it was supposed to be a heart-felt object that brings me to tears when I talk about it, unlike most of the people in my group. I went first in my group. I brought the spay-neuter stamps from the post office and talked about the universality of the human-animal bond blah blah blah pulling from my admissions essay. My object was more of a thesis. A few others were like me, but some people cried and cried and cried while discussion their items. I was one of 2 girls in my group who didnt cry. I feel like such a bitch for marginalizing their feelings.
Tina & Rico were brought back up again the next day. For an HOUR, we talked about how Rico broke up with his long-distance girlfriend and his mom got cancer and how depressed he became. The moral was to teach us to look out for depression, because the suicide rate of vet students is apparently high. However, instead of just telling us the symptoms and signs of depression and what to do if we are concerned, we had to listen to acn extensive cartoon example story. I understand the importance of the discussion, but it didnt need to be dumbed down to an episode of Arthur.
On a positive note, out of all of this, I was actually able to find good friends. How? By the ones who were making smart-ass comments. When asked to state a place where you matter, some guy yelled out "At a bar!". We'll be friends. Also friends with anyone who makes fun of the blue people. I now know who is serious, who is funny, who is weird, who is emotional, etc. During one lecture, a guy came and sat by me because he "needed to sit by other assholes". It was totally a compliment in context.
I probably didnt do it justice in this blog....but I was so strung out at the end I kept yelling "Get me off this mountain!"
We've all bonded now in our complete hatred for those 3 days. Being stuck in shitty situations can really bring people together.
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