Can't wait to get a life.

SteveNNP, MSN, NP · Oct 13, 2005

I hear you brother!!!

I graduated in May, and I still feel like I've been unplugged from the Borg Hive-Mind, since school preoccupied my every moment, as you commented. Don't worry, it will get better. Once my immediate debts were paid off, it was great to get a good paycheck, buy the BMW I always wanted, and not have to work while going to school. I still feel weird when I have 4-5 days off in a row....WHAT TO DO!!!!??? Those are the days I think about going for my NNP Master's, then kick myself back into consciousness after working 4 12 hour nights in a row! Hang in there! Nursing will obviously be a big part of your life after school, but you WILL miss the school experience. As a word of advice....do your practicum....or whatever you call the last few weeks of your internship on the floor where you REALLY want to work, and ham it up with all the staff you meet, including the NM.....You CAN get that job, if they like you well enough, and you are persistent enough. I got into a high-level ICU that never hires new grads for that reason. Once they see what you can do, they'll want you. So be thinking now about where you want to end up. Anyway, just another one of my rabbit trails. Take care!

SteveRN21 RN, BSN, ~NICU

speedykicks · Oct 13, 2005

oh I know how you feel! I ordered some carry-out from my favorite Mexican food place on my way home, in anticipation of a long night of studying. I must have looked pathetic watching in envy as the server carried a tray of drinks to a table - man that cold beer looked good. I even thought to myself "you people do not appreciate what you have" as they nonchalantly lifted their beers to drink and chatted with friends at their tables.

I miss:

watching football

playing the occasional video game

taking my dog to the dog park

sitting on the couch on a Friday night and doing absolutley nothing

I will still find time to watch college basketball, though. Some how, some way.

labman · Oct 13, 2005

Totally agree with you brothers!!

My friends go out and I study. People will go out I will be studying. I feel like 2.5 years of my life is gone. I really enjoy everything to do with nursing but once in a while you go to spoil yourself. It is difficult though. Remember almost a month we get thanksgiving break!!!

Well good luck guys, we are half way through hang in there

KENT

What i miss:

A video game once in a while

Hanging out with friends

I even don't like TV and I don't even get to watch it that much!

NurseDaddy2006 · Oct 14, 2005

SpeedyKicks... I feel you, man. I know that pathetic feeling.

There's a bunch of stay-at-home dads around here that I associate with from time to time, when time allows. I cant tell you how many times I had to miss Dad's Night Out because of studying, only to hear what a great time they had.

Then there are the times when they tell me their going out for a nice meal, and I cant go because I don't have the time or the money. Quite a few of these guys have wives that are doctors, lawyers, bigtime execs. They're at home with the kids all day while the wife earns the bucks. Not us, not me. We spend our savings to make ends meet while I'm not working. One night, there was a sendoff for one of the dads who was moving to Georgia. His wife's an RN, working as a district manager for a chemo drug company, and she got a promotion. Anyway the guys went to a steakhouse for the send off dinner, and I agreed to meet them an hour or so after the reservation time to meet them for a drink after dinner. I got there and they had not even ordered yet. They convinced me to sit with them while they ate. I felt so pathetic. One guy had a steak so big it looked like it came from the Flintstones cartoon. I had to get up, go out to "get some air", and walked up the street to a pub for a $6 burger. The 150 bucks per head check those guys paid was rich for me... especially with textbook and tuition to pay for. I felt like the biggest loser.

one of these days.

ND

Thunderwolf, MSN, RN · Oct 14, 2005

Things will change. You'll look back on these times. Your time in school will be but a memory then. You'll get there. Life will return. Don't lose sight of that.

speedykicks · Oct 14, 2005

yeah - eating out isn't the same. When that $50-$70 tab comes, you can't help but think "there is a medical dictionary for my PDA" "There goes two days I sacrificed working instead of studying and I ate it in one hour" "There goes five - seven pizzas on nights I am too tired to cook something" "There goes 65 cans of spaghetti -os" ok - not really on the spaghetti-os, but you get the point. I actually crave beer now, never used to. But even though I could afford one or two a week, I never have the spare evening. If I drink a beer and try to study, I fall asleep. Poor poor me.

However, I didn't take classes this summer, just worked full time. Still I was climbing the walls. You become conditioned to the pace of study, test, reward (good grade on test), study, test, reward. It gives life a certain cadence that is notable when it is not there. I didn't know what to do with myself on the weekends. I was glad when the semester started back up.

rogramjet · Oct 14, 2005

Guys, Hang in there. It will all be a memory before you know it. And believe me it is all worth it. There is nothing quite like being a nurse. There is no life during Nursing Hell. What I really missed when I was a student, was reading a book, just because, that had NOTHING to do with nursing or medicine.

NurseMatt · Oct 16, 2005

Glad I found this forum.

I am getting ready to turn 28 and am changing careers from IT to of course RN. I am getting everything ready and in the fall start the RN program.

I feel I will be coming here alot to vent and for advice.

Thanks in advance for you guys being here, I feel like I have a refuge already.

Annor · Oct 16, 2005

Life...does get better after school

Annor

Bicycleboy · Oct 18, 2005

The thing I miss most is the NFL, I thought when I quit my job of 12 years to go to school I would at least have 3 hours free on a Sunday, WRONG! Well reading week starts at the end of this week, so I am going to take a Sunday and watch football, heck I might even have a beer.

Never_too_late · Oct 18, 2005

OK,

I miss having time to develop and nurture a new relationship. My wife and I split 6 years ago. My new girlfriend made a run for it after 3 years once I had made up my mind (or lost it, she would say) and left my high paid job to go back to school full-time.

None of this makes me sad..anymore. But what I wouldn't give for evenings spent with a significant other.... sigh..

N_T_L