Life is what happens when you make other plans

I graduated from high school 11 years ago and went to school to become an accountant. 1 semester before graduating with my bachelors in accounting I decided that it wasn't for me. I had 2 children and put my efforts into caring for my children. I also worked for piddly wages as a bank teller. I kept telling my husband that I felt that I was supposed to be a nurse. He was less than supportive because I had already racked up an impressive amount of school loans in a career that I decided not to pursue. Finally, we decided that I should start doing prerequisites part-time. It was during my last few weeks of A & P that I had a miscarriage. This was a surprise baby, but definitely not an unwanted one. I had a hard time because I was just so angry that my baby had been taken away from me.

I started nursing school 8 months after my miscarriage. I was so happy about my future career, and I decided that having another child would have to wait until after nursing school. Then over Christmas break, I found out that I was pregnant again. It was almost exactly a year since my miscarriage. My emotions were immediately in conflict. I wanted another baby so bad, but on the other hand how could I handle nursing school while pregnant and with a preschooler and toddler at home already. I remember sitting in the bathtub crying my eyes out while my husband was absolutely elated. I was just so scared that it wouldn't be possible to finish school and that I would have to drop out.

Nursing school was hard, but I had an awesome group of classmates who gave me so much encouragement. I also had some awesome teachers who told me "yes, you can do it" when they noticed that I was getting exhausted and discouraged. To them I am ever thankful. And to the ones who were less than encouraging, I am also thankful because it made me want to prove them wrong.

My daughter was born this last October. One of my fellow students was at clinicals on L & D and was in the room when she was born. Even though I was exhausted, I went back to school the day after I got out of the hospital. It was challenge to balance mommyhood with school. Especially when I had to leave my newborn to go out of town for my Psych clinicals. But I made it, and now I am graduating on May 9th at the top of my class. The best part is that I am going to have my husband and three beautiful little girls in the audience watching me get pinned.