Nursing school isn't so bad (a recap of my week)

This week has been a rough one in terms of sleep. My Mondays always start off great since I don't have class untill 11:30 so I can sleep "late". But after that its just down hill. After class on Monday I headed to the library with a friend, and at 5:30 I ran off to take calls for scarlet listeners. Monday night I went rock climbing, came home, took a shower and went straight to bed. (Can I just say Mondays are my favorite day of the week? How weird is that - I know! But I love the class I have on Monday, I love that I can sleep in, I love taking call, and topping off my night with climbing is just perfection)

Anyways, even though I managed to go to sleep at a reasonable hour, for some reason, I overslept for work on Tuesday morning, and made it there at 8:25 instead of 8:15 (A.M. - I know, brutal). I then proceeded to have the most awkward Tuesday morning ever. But it happens. I went to a class that was actually canceled, met with a professor about the fact that I got a 68 on her last exam, and then spent the rest of my day & night in the library. 

Yesterday I had clinical, which requires waking up at an ungodly hour (aka before the sun is even up!). But luckily I managed to squeeze a nap in before heading off to the library to study my life away. A few friends and I left the library at 12:30 am, and then Angela was wonderful enough to take me to the grocery store since I have been eating out the past week and have zero food at home. Yes, we went grocery shopping at 1 A.M. This is the life of a nursing student who doesn't even have time to bleach her mustache and tweeze her eyebrows - forget about grocery shopping! By the time I got home, showered, got my stuff ready for the morning and started to fall asleep, it was 3:30 (Let me just clarify - 3:30 in the A.M.). Annnnnd, I had to wake up at 7:20 (in the A.M) today for work. Andddd I wont get home tonight until 9 or 10 (in the P.M)

The thing is, I am not even complaining. Yeah, it sucks that I haven't gotten much sleep. And yeah it sucks that I have spent every night this week in the library. But I have spent my nights studying like crazy with amazing people. Nursing school is such a bitch, but we're all struggling through this together which actually makes it a really beautiful thing. Talk to me tomorrow though, and lets see how I feel about nursing school then. 

Another little tidbit of nursing life info that I am really excited about: So yesterday at clinical, I was shadowing this nurse named Aine, who is absolutely amazing. Seeing her communicate with her patients is just so inspiring. She talks to them as if shes know then forever. She clearly explains everything that she is going to do with them, along with everything they're going to experience for the next few days in the hospital (surgery and recovery wise). You can just immediately sense her patients feeling at home, and feeling relieved that they now know exactly what to expect. So Aine, a resident and I were in the break room talking about how cold it is, Aine said that even though its so cold, she doesn't miss California. Which lead to her telling me a bit about her experience as a travel nurse. And I just got so freaking inspired since I reaaallly want to do travel nursing. Except I never knew how to go about it. Aine told me before I can do travel nursing, I need to get a few years experience on med-surg floor or something of the sort to gain a basic skill set and become really strong in those skills. Then I can start traveling. And I just feel like this gave me a whole new purpose as a nursing student (I know that sounds really dramatic and intense, but whatever). Everyone always asks me "do you have a specific field of nursing you want to go into?" And I never have a good response. But now I actually know where I am headed with this silly little career. So as of now the game plan after graduation is to move back home and spend 2 or 3 years working and saving up money and learning everything that I possibly can. Then I'll start traveling, but I won't spend the money that I saved in my initial few years. That way all the money I make as a travel nurse can be spent on the road, and when I get back I'll have a nice little savings to settle down with. 

Ahh, so many amazing goals and so many long term things to look forward to. I tend only really thing short term when it comes to goals. I just feel weird thinking so far ahead. But now I know where I want to be, and I am really freaking happy about it.