In a year from now, I will have hopefully passed my NCLEX, graduated college, and started my new job as a Registered Nurse. Although it seems like there is still such a long journey ahead of me, I know it is only a matter of time before it all happens. All the late-night studying and early morning clinicals will all be worth it in order to be the nurse I always wanted to be.
I cannot say that the last three years have been easy. In fact, they’ve been the opposite; they’ve been the hardest three years of my life. It’s been difficult to get through the toughest weeks of clinicals, exams, and skill-check offs while also balancing relationships, trying to be there for everyone who needs me, and finding time to do my least favorite task (laundry). During those weeks, it is super hard to stay motivated, and there have been many times where I have questioned if I’m strong enough to enter this career.
I am fully aware that the career I have chosen is not easy, but nothing worth doing is going to be easy. Nursing takes physical, emotional, and spiritual strength in order to give your patients the care they deserve: physical strength in order to stand on your feet for 12 hours during a busy day and still keep going; emotional strength in order to see tragedy and instead of shutting down, stepping up to the task in order to give the best care; spiritual strength in order to see the world at its worst and still know that the people are deserving of love and encouragement in order to get better.
I never thought nursing could mean so much to me. I honestly decided to pursue it because I knew I wanted to work in the medical field, and I knew nursing would be a good place to start the journey. I can’t lie and say I haven’t thought about switching majors (for a good week, I was convinced I was going to be a dentist; as it turns out, I find teeth incredible boring). I have always wanted to care for others, and I always knew that I was made to do it, too.
I have always said that when a person in the medical field says they want to care for others, only other people in the medical field truly understand what they mean. It’s just an indescribable feeling; it’s almost like a magnetic pull to want to care for all people and make them better. To be there on someone’s darkest days and make it better. To hold their hand when they need it. To be an advocate when they can’t advocate for themselves. I am so excited to become a nurse and make an impact on this world and the people in it. I know I won’t be this excited every day and that tough losses are ahead, but I also know that after every shift I will have made some worthwhile impact, and that is enough to keep me going.
In a year from now, I hope to look back on this article and still feel the same excitement I feel right now: the excitement to change the world for the better. Until then, I will continue to work my butt off to accomplish my goals and to learn and grow as a nursing student and as a human. In the face of all of the trials and errors I have undergone and will undergo, I am thankful for all of it.