Prepping for school...

Tuesday is my first official day of nursing class.  I've tried to prepare myself as best as I can - I have my books ready and I've attended meetings and orientations.  But you are never really ready, ya know?  I've looked through my books to get an idea of what I'm in for, and it sure seems overwhelming already.  That's a lot of reading, referencing, and researching!!!

One of the things I am glad I did, was make a list of reasons why I chose to become a nurse and a list of things I need to do to accomplish it.  It's something I'm going to hang on to and look back at during those "Why did I ever decide to do this, I am never going to make it!" moments. 
I hadn't plan on doing the Certified Nurse Assistant program, but with the way my classes lined up I had the opportunity to do it.  I am SO glad I did it!  It has allowed me to work side by side with nurses doing what I plan to do in a matter of months.  I definitely feel more prepared having done this and worked on an extremely busy Medical/Surgical unit of the hospital.  I've seen some amazing, touching, disgusting, stressful, scary, stupid, strange, and funny things...you really wouldn't believe it unless you've been there.  I've seen the hard work and determination that goes into all aspects of nursing.  There have been excellent examples of what to do and, unfortunately, perfect examples of what NOT to do.  I love being able to get the hands on experience, although a little nerve racking at first.  Slowly but surely I have gained confidence and I'm one step ahead of where I would have been.  I am incredibly grateful to the nurses who have gone out of their way to explain and show things to me - and love being able to assist them with caring for the patients.  That being said, those lazy nurses who think they are too good to do certain aspects of patient care disgust me.  Don't get into this field if you aren't willing to work hard, help patients and coworkers alike, and get your hands a little dirty (with gloves, of course!).  You don't belong anywhere near health care if you aren't caring, understanding and compassionate!!
The last thing I want to talk about is my grandmother who was a nurse.  I don't really know why or how she got into nursing, but she was a lifelong nurse and loved it.  She was a wonderful person - so I'm sure she was an unbelievably amazing nurse.  She is probably the warmest and kindest soul I have ever known.  She will always be an inspiration to me, through school and my career.  I know she will be watching over me and guiding me from heaven.  My grandfather was a truly gifted and kind person as well.  His military background and plain old hard work never hardened him.  He was always a gentleman.  So, when I spotted this Betty Boop nurse tag in the bookstore while getting my supplies, I just knew they were both with me.  Words cannot express my love for this...

As we say in our unit at work - "It is what it is...but it will become what you make of it".  I'm going to make the best of it, that's for sure!

Here goes nothing....

While I was working the other night, I got to thinking...I'm starting nursing school in less than a week, and I should journal about it as I go along.  I mentioned it to Michael, and his suggestion was to start a blog instead.  Of course he would say that, he's a techie geek.  What the heck do I know about blogging though?  I decided to give it a try - we'll see how it goes.  But, I have to ask, why in the world am I deciding to do this for the first time right now?  Well, I want to be able to reflect back on things later, to vent, to just have another project added to my plate, I guess.  I know my life is going to change dramatically starting next week with a pretty intense semester of school for myself, so that sounds like the perfect time to try something totally new and foreign, right?  Who knows how long I'll keep this up for...but I'm gonna give it a whirl.  Hopefully this doesn't end up being my only post.

For starters I want to touch on how I got to this point....

For a while I was so busy raising babies, I didn't give much thought to my life in general.  I just went along day by day trying to stay afloat with some sort of sanity and dignity.  Who had time to think about goals?  There were diapers to change, mouths to feed, and chasing to do!  I ended up changing jobs two years ago, which turned out to be awful and wonderful all at once.  The job itself sucked, for lack of a better term.  But I appreciate it so much now.  If it hadn't been for that crappy job, I wouldn't have reconnected with a friend and I wouldn't have decided to go back to college.  I am incredibly grateful that I took that wrong turn in my career, because I ended up finding a better road to take after all.  I think I would have just continued living life day by day and not really paying much attention to the big picture.  Now I get it though, I have goals again and I am not losing sight of them.  I have been working hard this past year and a half, almost two years.  I still have a ways to go, but it really won't be that long before I accomplish some big ones.  I can't wait to see what my life is going to be like in just a few years.  I have visions of what it will be like and I will do whatever it takes to make it happen.  It feels good to be working towards something, and not just "working". 

OK, I'm not sure how to end this first post without it being awkward....so I'd like to thank Michael for suggesting that I give this a try.  Also, I'd like to point out that my cousin Jen has inspired me to do this through her recent venture in the blogging world.  Hopefully this will prove to be more fun than work......