Officially a college graduate :)

So as you know, I "graduated" in April from Grand Valley with the cap, gown and the whole shebang, but then I still had one more semester of the nursing program. So last Saturday I ACTUALLY really finished the nursing program. This ceremony was really great because it was just for the nursing program, so it was like 64 people in my class plus about 15 Master's students that were finishing this semester. So it was very personal. We all got to write a little thank you to be read as we walked across the stage and we had a slideshow play full of pictures of us. We got to pick the songs we wanted to walk in and out to but due to some technical issues, they never got to play. Overall though the day was really nice, and it was nice to get to spend it with all of my nursing friends as well as my parents and Dan. It was kind of sad to be done, but the following week we had an NCLEX review class so I still got to spend another week with my friends :) It still feels a little bit surreal that I'm actually done with college. It seems like it wasn't that long ago that I was moving into my dorm. It definitely doesn't feel like it's been five years since then. The nursing program part of college was my last five semesters. I NEVER thought that I would get there. I cried all the time. I wanted to quit, change my major, do something easier. I hated so many of my classes, but I knew that if I stuck it out and could get there, it would all be worth it. Now that I'm done, I know that it was worth it. I have a degree that's actually useful. I love being a nurse. And I am so excited to get a job and start real life. So here's to the end. I NEVER thought it would come and I am SO excited to see what comes next!

Future Me

If you've never heard of FutureMe.org, it's a website that let's your write emails to yourself and set the date that you want them sent to you. Once you write them you can't read them again until the date you set them to be sent. So about two months before the end of the semester when I was majorly lacking motivation (obviously because I was procrastinating on this website) I wrote an email to send to myself the day of my pinning ceremony, which was last Saturday. Here it is! I HIGHLY recommend you check out the website :)

Dear FutureMe,

Today you made it! You are officially done with nursing school. I know how hard it has been to stay motivated this summer, but it has paid off. Right now you haven't even started your capstone paper, and are just about to finish your leadership rotation. Pinning still seems so far away. I don't know how you are going to find the motivation to finish everything, but I know you will do it, you always do. Today is the end of college. Five years and today it is all worth it. The tears, the frustration, the doubt and the fear. It's all worth it because today it is over. It is bittersweet. I hope you enjoy every second of this day. The people you are spending it with are amazing and they have been there for you for the past year and a half, and I hope you treasure spending this day with them. I'm sure you will cry, but that's okay. Take it in because after today everything is going to change. But you will figure it all out. Remember to thank mom and dad today, you wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them. I hope this day is everything you hoped it would be. Don't stress out about what the next few months will bring, everything will work out :)

Congratulations! YOU MADE IT.

Smile today,
Me.

Paper chain progress!

One of my classmates also has a nursing blog and he took all of my paper chain pictures and put them next to each other so I wanted to do the same thing to show how far we have come! The paper chain started at 250 days, then the next pictures are at 150 days, 100 days, 50 days, 6 days and 1 day! Today was my last final EVER of college, and even though I didn't study for it, it went fine and I PASSED. Tomorrow is my pinning/recognition ceremony which is really the end of nursing school. It all still feels so surreal. I can't even believe it :)








NO MORE DAYS OF SCHOOL!!!!!!!! :):):):):)

KRISTIN GOT MARRIED!

On an unrelated note, Kristin got married this weekend! Kristin is one of my bff's in the nursing program and I have known her since our first nursing class last January. On Sunday she married a man that she has been with for TEN YEARS, and myself and five other girls from my class got to be there to share the day with her. This group that went to the wedding is the same group from the "Friends for Life Christmas card." I love these girls so much and I am so glad that we were all able to be together for Kristin's wedding. Also, Kristin is having a baby in October (hopefully on my birthday) and I cannot WAIT :)Enjoy some pictures of us at the wedding! It was beautiful <3

Four days until the real world.

Yep, I feel like the little girl in the picture because in 4 days nursing school will be OVER! Last week we finished up our community health rotation at the health department. Tuesday was our last day at Core Health and I got to go out and shadow the nurse on her enrollment visit. The visit took about 2 hours and I got to see how the nurse enrolls a new client and all of the information that she needs to collect. It was kind of a cool way to wrap up my time at Core Health. I really didn't love our involvement in the program just because we only had time to go on usually one or two visits each day and we never got to see the same clients more than once. So because of this we really never got to build any kind of relationship with the clients or really teach them much of anything. It was nice to see all of the things that the program does and in that was it was a good experience, I just don't feel like we really got a whole lot out of it. So after that I had a visit with one of my health department clients buuuut she no-showed and both of the phone numbers I had for her were disconnected. So that was a bust. So we spent the rest of the day working on our teaching/learning presentation.

Thursday we presented a timeline of our LEI (elderly) clients that we have been working with for the past five semesters. It was actually kind of cool to hear everyone talk about their clients and see how different all of them are. Then we ran through our presentation a few times, did our evaluations with our instructor and left at noon to go to lunch :)Overall the health department was an interesting experience. I don't feel that I really got a ton out of it, but I definitely did learn some things. I learned to consider the environment that people live in, the resources that they have available to them and what they are going home to once they leave the hospital. I also learned about TONS of resources in Grand Rapids that I never even knew existed. I also got to see many different areas of the health department, like the TB clinic and the STD clinic. It did open my eyes to a lot of the problems that people in lower socioeconomic status have to cope with in order to care for themselves. So although it wasn't my favorite rotation, I did gain a lot of insight and I think I was able to get something out of it that I can apply no matter where I work in the future.

So moral of the story, I'm glad that community health is over because it means we are one step closer to being done!

Also today we presented our teaching/learning project and got a 99% on it :) Win.