Howdy! I’m Branden, and I am a junior Biomedical Science major. I am hoping to go to Veterinary School after undergrad. My current plan is to apply this coming May (WHAT!?!). My dream would be to work with infectious zoonotic diseases and travel all over the world (WHO maybe?).
The title of this could not fit me, and my family, better (It is a song by Whiskey Myers). I come from a family that has barely been out of the Texas-Oklahoma area. My grandparents could not have dreamed about going to college, let alone leaving the country at all. Here I am, doing both. I am very proud of where I come from, I wouldn’t change it for anything. However, I also know I am going to, at least try, and do something different with my life. I love Texas, but there is a huge world out there I want to explore!
Getting ready for this has been a very surreal time. Knowing that, even amongst my friends, the thought of going abroad just isn’t one that is brought up much. Yet here I am, going abroad for a long time, and very far away from the little chunk of Texas/Oklahoma my family calls home. I have been thinking about the new worlds that await me in Europe every since I signed up for this trip! I love learning about other cultures and how other people live. This semester will be great! Europe is like a conglomeration of little cultural centers. Where as back home in Texas, you could drive for 10 hours and still be in the same state, same culture, same language, nothing super different about the two areas. But in Europe, 10 hours could be 50 different cultures, all with their own language, and all with unique qualities. These next few months will hopefully give me a good taste of what I would love to do one day; that is, to work with infectious diseases and travel all over!
Getting ready to go has been exciting, but still bittersweet. I will miss all my friends back in College Station. Leaving College Station this last time was sad, because I know I won’t be back for a good eight months. Luckily, thanks to today’s technology and the internet, I will still be able to stay in contact with them, even if we can’t be on the same continent.
I do think that the hardest part of all of leaving, by far, is going to be packing. I have looked over all that I have and at first was like, “Oh, this won’t be so bad, one checked back and a backpack, easy!” Well, that simple plan went downhill fast. Now I have a full checked back, a carry on nearly full, and my back pack. I did not realize I was taking so much, but I suppose that it does take a lot to live somewhere for so long, especially when it is going to be freezing cold for the first few months. I usually can stand the Texas winters fairly well. However, after hearing Dr. Wasser and some others talk about the freezing cold temperatures in Germany, I want to make sure I am prepared for this. If it turns out I have things I do not need, I will just mail it back home to help lighten my load!
This trip will be very interesting. After meeting everyone at our pre-departure meetings. I have realized that I am that only Pre-Vet student going. I have no problem with this, but it will make for very interesting trips when everyone is asking about human issues and I will be over by myself like, “But where are the dogs, horses and cows?”
After going to Ecuador with Veterinarians Without Borders, I have seen just how different places can be from back home in Texas. Of course Ecuador is considerably less developed, and I am able to speak Spanish and get around with the locals–decently enough at least. Germany will be a whole new experience, like nothing I could even imagine. I know absolutely NO German. As a country, they are also just as developed as the US, but they developed in a totally different way. Also, I spent just under two weeks in Ecuador. I will be spending four and a half months in Germany, then going to Spain to study medical Spanish. It is a long time (nearly 8 months!!), but I could not be more excited! I just hope to stick to my motto from Robert Earl Keen Jr.: “The Road Goes On Forever and the Party Never Ends.” haha.
All I have to say for Bonn, like I told my friends in Barcelona, “¡Cuidate que vienen los tejanos!” which basically is, “Watch out, the Texans are coming!” (I’ll eventually figure out how to say that in German, I hope!)
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