Vroom Vroom

Every three weeks or so, I'm expected to be at school at seven am for what's called "Kennel Duty". This is part of our animal care duties, and absolutely required to graduate. No missing a shift, no being even a minute late, or you'll be shot. Well, no, but your grade drops to a C the first time and you're booted out of the program the second time. Yep, for real. So no pressure.

If I'm on Small Animal Kennel Duty this means feeding dogs and cats, scooping out litter boxes, walking the dogs, collecting samples, filling out everyone's chart, and mopping, cleaning, disinfecting, etc. If I'm on Large Animal Kennel duty this means feeding calves, sheep and horses, letting them out in the pasture in the morning, bringing them in at night, mucking stalls and wheelbarrowing large amounts of crap over to the manure bin, sweeping and other fun tasks.

There's no bus that will get me to school for seven, so I've been borrowing my mom's car and driving there on the days I have kennel duty. Every time I get behind the wheel of the car I have a little meltdown: Will someone cut me off? Will I be rear ended? Will the car skid in a patch of black ice and spin out of control? Will there be construction on my regular route forcing me to take a new and scary route? Will I arrive alive? Heh, seriously.

And every time nothing happens, and I get there just fine and as I'm dropping off the car at my parents' house at the end of the week, I breathe a sigh of relief. My confidence goes up a little. I'm even proud of myself for gettin' er done. For navigating expressways, and dealing with winter driving conditions, and for stepping way out of my comfort zone. I even think that one day this will all be second nature. And then I dread the next time. Sigh.