Lessons Learned

Sometimes things just move you

A word, a touch, a thought, a leaf that falls as you pass by.....

Sometimes inspiration comes from a place you never expected

Everyone wants a piece of me, and no can see that I am falling to pieces

That’s how I felt 3 weeks ago

Here class, write a paper worth 40 percent of your grade…WTF

I realized something this weekend… thank you facebook

Relationships work only if both parties have the same end goal

I was forced to realize that last term, but reminded again this weekend

A lot of relationships have died here in nursing school

But this weekend I was reminded that we are all after the same thing

We are not in competition, we are in this together!

We all hate the same stuff, and love the same stuff about this program, and at the end of the day, we just want to do it…..and doing it is always a good thing in relationships…

In my life

For my higher self

I want real love that goes beyond romance

In this program, I have found friendship

That goes beyond convenience

I am a part of you and you will always be a part of my life

Every last one of you

Because every day, you get out of bed too, and every time you go to clinical, you are stressed out too, and everytime you “get it” you remember too…why we are here.

They make us write papers and take stupid tests and go to classes at really bad hours

But what I have learned….here…I am never alone. You always wake up. You always actually use empathy lol, and you are always there when I have nothing left

That is what relationships are made of. Trust, reliability, accountability, common goals, honesty, and  respect.

If I was told I could never be a nurse, I would wish to forever be a nursing student, because I am surrounded by 95 amazing human beings that actually get me….and that put up with my shit (or at least tolerate it)…but they get me…..because they are self aware, they are bright, they are strong independent leaders. And we want the same things for our world

On my walk home today, I was thinking about everything that I wanted in my life, about what I was working towards, and something clicked… a crispy orange leaf fell to the ground, cutting the silence of the night…I stopped

I turned around for the first time in a long time…. I looked at where I had been. The street was lined with beautiful trees, all different colors of autumn, the street lamps were perfectly placed, and the air was still……… where am I going? If not exactly where I am?

So again I am forcefully reminded that, hey! I am exactly where I am supposed to be…. And maybe I should pay attention, because all the things I long for and ask for, are right there… right behind me….

It is not about the final destination…. I hate finality, it’s the process of this that resonates. Remember when you were so nervous to find out if you were getting in? remember that first week? I was there too. That’s behind us now, but so much a part of what defines us.

I don’t want straight A’s

I want to write a paper in 2 days and laugh my ass off because the people going through it with me, are actually just as silly and pissed off about it as I am

It’s not about the end mark of that paper, and the fact remains that I have never felt so connected to anyone while writing a paper alone in my jammies.

This is the culture of nursing

We will set a new tone

Not of competition, but of collaboration

Because we can (because we now know what that menas!)… and because we know that works better

We don’t hate each other, we get each other

We don’t always get along, but we get that we have the same end goal

 Lessons learned;

I am human

I sometimes take things too personally

I was born to be a nurse

I know at least  95 other people who were born for that too

Our journeys will be different, and that’s ok

We have the power to inspire change in the world

 We are tough as shit

We love what we were born to do... when it doesn't involve APA....

Writing papers, was never a part of the plan

To the class of Dec 2014

I will miss the heck out of each and every one of you moving into level 5

Thank you for being a part of this journey

love you more than you'll ever know

Alana Smith- Student Nurse