Monday, August 20, 2007

My First Day as a Nursing Student

Today was my first day of school. I was understandably nervous, which is unfortunate because when I get nervous I mumble.

The day was compiled of orientation activities - lectures mostly, (though they did feed us two excellent meals: fruit for breakfast and chicken salad for lunch). I expected the lectures to be filled with Vanderbilt propaganda and how lucky we were to be enrolled there ... blah blah. But what they filled us with was pride for desiring to be a nurse.

The faculty and staff expressed their passion and joy in calling themselves nurses. They discussed their excitement for us as our journey was just begining. They told us what we should expect over the next two years and what was expected of us. Questions were answered over the course of the day that I didn't even know I had. I briefly felt overwhelmed and fearful, but throughout the day I was reminded why I was there. Clinical words were tossed around and I was reminded of my patients of over 2 years. In my heart I know that I'm headed in the right direction. This is what I will have to remember and focus on over the next 2 years - the patients, the purpose, the goal.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm so proud for you and of you!

Chara said...

Well, you've got a couple of days behind you- only a couple of years to go. I used you in my classroom last week as an example of someone who believes that she can do whatever she wants- i was trying to inspire my students to look into educating themselves on whatever they had a passion for- whether it's flying or nursing.


wombmate

~Joy Kaye~ said...

Yay for you!! I'm glad to hear your Vandy tales...sorta like Veggie Tales with less cucumbers...

Hey...great car too, by the way!

Love ya!
JK

Anonymous said...

Tara, you are doing a wonderful thing! At 58 yrs I frequently think that I would love to do what you are doing. you are SOOOOOOO capable and have demostrated this numerous times. I am so proud of you and for you!!!!
My son-in-law is a Phd student at Vanderbilt-Peabody and Claire is tchg parttime at Belmont. Can I come join you all too?
Guess Mr Bill would miss me! xoxo, DR S