What Made Me Pursue a Nursing Career?

This is my story of how and why I decided Nursing was the career path for me. It describes a brief history of my life prior to going to college and what influenced me in the choices I've made for not only my future but my daughters future as well. Nurses Announcements Archive Article

What Made Me Pursue a Nursing Career?

My life growing up was pretty hard. My parents separated when I was four and my father battled with a drug addiction until finally getting sober when I was 14 years old. We moved around a lot and I never felt like I had a place to call home. After I graduated from high school I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with my life, nor did I have the funds to go to college. So, I decided I would jump right into the workforce.

It took me almost ten years, having a wonderful daughter and a few life experiences to realize my life had reached a standstill. Although I was paying my bills and getting by I was not getting ahead and not able to plan for my daughter's future.

This began to weigh heavily on me.

It was hard enough being a single mom and trying to survive but I knew I needed to do something more with my life before it was too late and I regretted not being able to give my daughter the life I knew she deserved.

I decided to start taking liberal arts classes at Community College of Philadelphia while trying to figure out what I wanted to major in. During this time I began volunteering for some non-profit organizations and realized how many needy people there were in the world.

It dawned on me that helping people was something I could thoroughly enjoy doing for the rest of my life but I wasn't sure what field I wanted to go in to.

While on my path to discovery I met a girl who was a full-time traveling nurse. Every three months she moved from place to place working in the critical care field where ever she was needed. She had traveled all over the world helping people.

Her stories fascinated me.

I began looking into Nursing as a career option.

I realized this was something I could do and love for the rest of my life. Of course traveling was not something I could just pick up and do because of my daughter but just being able to help people was something I felt would be rewarding and satisfying.

I decided at that point I would focus my attention on getting into the Nursing program at CCP. It took two years of going to school part-time, utilizing the summer sessions as well, while working full-time to finish all the classes I wanted to get done.

Once I had accomplished that I began the application process into Nursing. I am happy to inform I received my acceptance letter and will start the Nursing curriculum in the fall of this year. Because I was able to get almost all of my classes done that correlated to the Nursing program I will only be taking Nursing classes for the next two years.

I am proud to say that I currently have a GPA of 3.45 and it is only getting better as I received an A in my summer class. I am working to keep my GPA on the rise and I hope to graduate from CCP with at least a 3.75 or better.

I plan on taking the NCLEX after getting my associate's degree and transferring to Temple University to get my bachelor's degree while working as a nurse. My long term goal is to work as a Neonatal Nurse in a hospital setting while attending school to get my master's degree in nursing.

I've learned so much over the past two years.

Most importantly I've learned that if you set your mind to something and work hard you can accomplish anything your heart desires.

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cupidsqueen420

About cupidsqueen420, BSN, RN

I am 30 years old with a 2 year old daughter. I am currently attending school part-time while working and look forward to starting Nursing school in the fall of this year.

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Specializes in Rehab.

and a great nurse u will be i just registered at ccp for fall 2012 courses, i finshed my lpn in jan this year, so now i am doing my prerequesites full time and working part time, maybe i will bump into you if all goes well, good luck, u already have the passion, i grew up in a similiar situation, drug addicted mom in north philly, im a single mom of a 7 year old and im 28, so i say u go girl

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That is great that you will starting in the fall as well. I am extremely excited about it. How do you like being an lpn? I was planning, after my first semester to take the test to become a cna just to see if I can get my foot in the door and get some hands on experience on top of my clinical hours. Good luck to you as well. Hope to see you around campus. :)

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Congrats!! I start nursing school in the fall as well. It was lovely to read your story.

Good luck!!

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