help?

[balutboi]

So I'm only 17 years old and I guess I'm at the point of my life where I'm thinking about my future, since my senior year is coming up and I'll be off to college. Both of my parents are nurses and they always push me to do it, and I just wasn't all too sure about it. Music is my passion, I'm the leader of a 125 member band, and well in music I've been fairly successful at it, thanks to God of course, I had a talk with my mom and she told me about all the jobs there are in nursing and I told her that I wasn't sure if nursing was what i saw myself doing for the rest of my life. So I was like, hey why not look for a nursing forum, googled one up and found this one. But some questions I have is, do you guys love nursing and love what you're doing? Do you have time for yourself and for your family? Do you still get to do what you love doing (like for me play music). Another thing is, I don't want to spend the rest of my life as another face in the crowd, cause it just isn't my personality. Is there a job where I can express leadership and stuff like that in the nursing field? If you guys could help out sort out my life, that would be great. Oh and if you do plan on responding, don't make it sound like there are absolutely no flaws and absolutely nothing negative about nursing, explain your experiences and tell me where you guys are now. Tell me about what to expect and the things that you hated. Well, I think I did more than stop in, say hello, and introduce myself. Oh my name is Jason by the way. Hopefully somebody reads this and helps me out...

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

hi, jason! well, like so many young people, the world is open to you and i am so sorry you feel like your parents are pushing you to do something you many not particularly want to do. i truly feel sympathetic to your situation and i am curious as to why you are also not exploring careers in music. are you aware that when you turn 18 you can pretty much do what you want? your parents may not like it. and, you might risk having their financial support yanked from under you, but if music is what you want to have in your life, explore music as a career choice. if you are not happy going into nursing, you will not thrive at it. it is a very stressful line of work and requires some dedication. i've listed a number of links for you to read to explore the career of nursing. many of these links come from the website of the collegeboard.com which is where you can get information about the sat and other tests. the site also has extensive information for students on how to chose a college major and how to get financial aid. i'm sure with a few clicks of the mouse you will also find information on music careers there.

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/csearch/majors_careers/45263.html - "ten questions to ask yourself" about nursing and if it might be right for you

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/csearch/majors_careers/228.html - this is a career worksheet put together by college board.com (the people who write the sat and clep tests!). this is for those of you who aren't quite sure that nursing is for you and something you can do to help you make that decision.

http://www.discovernursing.com/

http://www.nursingsociety.org/career/cmap.html

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/csearch/majors_careers/42226.html - "thinking about nursing school? consider your many options" from the college board.

http://www.wetfeet.com/content/careers/nursing.aspx - about nursing from webfeet.com

http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos083.htm - about registered nursing from the u.s. department of labor

http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos102.htm - about lpn nursing from the u.s. department of labor