Homecoming

Preface

As you probably already know, this book is called Loving Lenore. Who is this Lenore? It's really hard to say. We've all loved and lost and never loved anything as much as the things we lost. She might be a good friend, a mother, or our fondest dream. Maybe she's been all of those things.

As you've probably already figured out, this book has a narrator, and this narrator is me. Who am I? It's really hard to say. I'll let you be the judge of that.

Chapter 1: Homecoming

Homesickness is a disease, my friends, for which the only cure is going home. As I struggled through a veritable mountain of exams, the longing intensified to the point where it worked its way into my daydreams. A college student is used to being away from home and their families are used to their absence. I have left home so many times that my return has become a bit of ritual, something ingrained in my mind as clearly as my lecture notes. For me, home has become condensed into a few crystalline impressions, and Dusty stars in all of them.

Now in case you're wondering, Dusty is a good friend of mine that looks like a cross between an Irish wolfhound and the neighborhood stray, and typically behaves as such. Since Dusty is always first on the scene to greet me, I've adopted the habit of throwing my arms around him and (since he's one of the few dogs that enjoy such a thing) squeezing him like a teddy bear. My so called 'professionalism' goes straight out the window as I manhandle one of my future patients, who by all appearances, is enjoying every minute of it. Over time, Dusty has begun to symbolize home for me. Now with break right around the corner and the trials by fire called exams behind me, I can feel his rough fur and hear his nails across the floor.

Believe it or not, Thanksgiving is not one of those holidays that vet students habitually celebrate. This meager break from school is not long enough for most to consider returning home. Instead this holiday has taken on a whole new meaning. Instead of 'Thanksgiving break' it has become 'Time in which I Desperately Prepare for Finals'. The staff and faculty pretend that their students are going home, and wish them a good Thanksgiving. The students pretend to leave, and instead study their brains out.

I've become a bit of a well loved heretic among my peers, taking time to go home for holidays and occasionally enjoying my free time by not studying. This time around though, I too, feel the pressure of the looming finals. After all, DVM programs are not for the faint of heart. Students whose grades don't make the cut frequently are cut, and have the pleasure of shouldering thousands of dollars of loans while they watch their dreams turn to ash. Here academics take on a whole new meaning, and school becomes a life and death battle for success. A few wrong moves, and I too, can be out on my butt. And yet when school lets out, I'll be on the road for home. Homesickness, after all, only has one cure.