One Step Closer

My first semester of nursing school is finally coming to an end. This semester has been a tumultuous journey with a lot of roadblocks but I never stopped pushing and most importantly, I never looked back. By always pushing myself forward and trying to keep myself busy, the weeks turned into months and this semester just literally flew right by me. I still can't believe that I made it out alive but I know that this isn't the end - we still have five more semesters to go. It's kind of scary knowing that we still have such a long way to go considering how hard this first semester was. And it's even scarier knowing that it's only going to get harder. But the one thing that I can take away from this first semester of nursing school is that I know that I am capable of doing the work required to become a nurse. I've also learned a few things about myself in the process as well. For starters, I finally got a little taste of what it is like to be a nurse in the hospital. By working with patients in the hospital, I truly feel as if God has blessed me with the skills to be a helping hand to those who can't help themselves. It truly is an amazing feeling knowing that you are going to be impacting peoples lives in more ways than one. One of the more important skills that I've learned besides nursing is getting my priorities straight. Truthfully, although I "think" I got my priorities straight, I know that there is always room for improvement and I will continue to strive for that until I reach my goal and that is graduation. With nursing school, there is little room for error and if you slack off, it will definitely come back to haunt you later. In the end, my first semester of nursing school was a good learning experience and I hope that my future semesters will be just as memorable.

Never Ending Journey

I never thought that I would make it out alive after midterms week. With so many different assignments & tests to study for each class, I felt a sense of hopelessness and was expecting to fail miserably because I just personally never had experienced such a heavy workload before. Needless to say, I buckled down on my studies and took things one assignment at a time. The whole month of October was basically dedicated to studying for midterms week and I am proud to say that I did much better than expected. By getting almost all A's and B's in everything, I felt a sense of accomplishment knowing that I was capable of doing all of this work and even getting good grades too. However; this is just one part of the semester. It is called "midterms" for a reason because it is only the middle of the semester and now we have finals to expect. I was really hoping to just find some time to relax and catch up with people back home because I feel as if I have lost contact with a lot of people whom I had close relationships with. I figured that Thanksgiving break would be the perfect opportunity to do this as we have a whole week off from school. In the past, my Thanksgiving break consisted of eating myself silly and then taking long naps only to wake up and do the same thing all over again. It was the one week during the school year where I usually didn't have to worry about assignments or anything school related.

 Now that I am in nursing school, things are different. We have major assignments due for each class right after we come back from Thanksgiving break (papers, exams, and of course finals). I know that I can't do what I usually do during Thanksgiving break and that is slack off. Although I plan on making time for family and friends, I have a new found sense of priorities and I will also keep my school work on check during this week off from school. One way that I have been preparing for this is by getting started on assignments much earlier. I am hoping that by the time Thanksgiving break rolls around I will have a head start on my assignments so that I am not forcing myself to study overtime. The one thing that keeps me going is the sense of accomplishment I felt after getting through midterms week and I plan on finishing my first semester of nursing school on a high note. Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving everyone !

How undeserving we really are...

  
To be honest, I was really not looking forward to this event. Just the thought of having to leave CBU by 6 A.M and going out all the way to LA to volunteer for some event that I have never even heard of was not very appealing to me. Needless to say, by the end of my day I was overwhelmed by feelings of gratitude and a deeper appreciation for the things that I have taken for granted for so long in my life. We first arrived at the Fred Jordan Mission at skid row at about 9 A.M. and we were broken up into different groups that handled various parts of the event. The group that I was placed in was responsible for handing out Snicker bars and stickers to the kids. The first real shock of the day came for me when some of us in the group went out to the very front of where the line started and began to hand out the Snicker bars to the people that were waiting in line. You would not believe the rate at how fast the Snicker bars were going out. We would literally get rid of a cardboard box full of Snicker bars in less than two minutes and then would have to go back and get more boxes. While doing all of this, I got the chance to talk to a few people that were waiting in line and it blew my mind that some of them were waiting in line since the night before and some had even spent the night there with their pajamas and all. What made it worse was that everyone in the line was packed like sardines in a can and the line was hardly moving at all but you could tell from the look on the kids faces that they were really excited for what the day had in store for them.

After eating lunch with some of the members in my group, I volunteered myself to be an escort for the kids and walk with them through the different booths where they would be receiving free goodies. This was hands down my most favorite part of the day because just being able to be there with the kids and see their reactions whenever they got something new to throw in their bag was a heartwarming experience. I was very humbled by this personally because when I wake up in the morning, I have a hard time picking what outfit I want to wear for the day because I have so many different pairs of shoes and clothes to pick from. These kids were so grateful for whatever was handed to them and rarely had any complaints where I on the other hand need all my clothes to be name brand and top of the line quality. In the end, it made me sad to realize that so many kids out there who are so deserving have so little while people like me have all the things in world plus more and yet are still unhappy with their lives and want more. Overall, volunteering for the Fred Jordan Mission at skid row was an eye opening experience and I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to work with so many underprivileged kids. I know that in the future I will not hesitate at the opportunity to volunteer at an event like this and am looking forward to the next time I can make a difference in someones life.  (This meme below is a bit extreme but I feel like it clearly shows the relationship between kids like me and kids like those that I got the chance to help at the Fred Jordan Mission.)