What is my calling in life?

For as long as I can remember, I've had a fascination with animals and maybe even a special connection to them.  My father has worked in agriculture much of his life and therefore has afforded me many opportunities to develop the skills of animal husbandry and expose me to the care of multiple farm animals.  Though we never lived on a farm, we had farm experiences through my father's connection with local farmers.  I think he likes to live vicariously through them.  We raised rabbits, chickens, pigs, and Brown Swiss dairy heifers.  Brown Swiss are his favorite.  My mother exposed me to caring for multiple family dogs.  I loved my time with animals.  

Another love that developed was working with my hands.  Fixing things, hunting, fishing, building things, physical labor, and sports.  How can I combine these in my future endeavours?

After serving a mission, it was time to decide on a career path and the obvious answer was something with animals.  When my Stake President released me and I explained to him that I would be attending BYU-Idaho and studying Animal Science, he promptly asked, "Oh, are you thinking about going to vet school?"  I remember either verbalizing or thinking, "No?!"  I then immediately forgot about this crazy idea. 

Well, after my first semester at BYU-I, I chose to work back home on a calf ranch as an intern.  It was literally a "frozen tundra".  The coldest job I'd ever had.  Because of this decision, I was exposed again to the possibility of veterinary medicine.  One day I remember a large animal veterinarian came to the calf ranch to perform surgery on multiple dairy heifers that had umbilical hernias.  This experience sold me on becoming a veterinarian hook, line, and sinker.  He sedated three heifers, tied them up on their backs, cut them open, and sutured them closed one by one.  I'm sure my eye balls were lucking not to fall out of their sockets the entire time.

From then on during my internship, I took time to ride with multiple large animal veterinarians in their vet trucks and discussed what it took to become one.  After prayer and fasting, and researching vet school, when I returned to BYU-I my path was headed to becoming a veterinarian.  

The path has been long and hard, but I've felt guided the entire time.  Specific people and experiences were placed in my life to lead me to veterinary school and they continue to guide me today.

At least one of my callings in life was to become a veterinarian.  I'm happiest and feel most fulfilled in life, when I'm using my hands to serve others through the care of their animals.
Randy Pausch was able to achieve his dreams because he was not afraid to take risks and didn't let "brick walls" keep him from giving up.  Dreaming is a great thing, especially if it is for something positive. If you do not dream, how can you make goals of things you want to accomplish in life.  Dreams are essential to progress.
One of my childhood dreams was to become a train engineer.  I had an electrical train set that I received one christmas and I was so amused every time I played with it.  Even though I think childhood dreams are healthy and an important part of growing up, sometimes childhood dreams wane over time.  The older I got and the more experienced I became, the more I thought how boring it would be to become a train engineer.  I think sometimes we have dreams that are only dreams because we imagine a world or fantasy that we don't completely understand or only have a superficial knowledge.  Because I liked playing with a train set, the fantasy of train engineer seemed exciting, even though I didn't know exactly the job of a train engineer.  Dreams can change and that's okay.  Some dreams lead us to other dreams, and other dreams lead us to dreams we never imagined.