Ode to Nursing School

Sunshine1879 · Apr 30, 2009

I wrote this poem yesterday when I was going over some of my old saunders practice exams. Hope you like!

I dreampt a dream, one might say,

what seems many long years ago, before my dismay.

I felt a calling, a need, a pull -

that my place was not here, that my routines were null.

"Do it for them", a voice said in the back of my mind,

"be strong for the weak, be eyes for the blind."

Like I said, it wasn't a desire so much as a pull...

So I left home with my love and entered nursing school.

I was naive to think it would be easy- HA! Was I a fool...

To leave ones home to many far places,

away from family, friends and familiar faces,

into frightening, dark, and unusual spaces,

left me timid, tired, stressed, and without a word to rhyme with spaces.

A simple walk in the park this was not meant to be,

more like jumping through flaming hoops

or walking through a cloud of bees.

Maybe I'm being too harsh, maybe it wasn't all that bad...

But when I look back, Most of what I see is the worrying

and studying and all the trouble I had.

No, at times school was tolerable and even fun.

But I'm glad that it's over,

time to relax with my husband and enjoy the sun.

Like that stupid cliche of a butterfly emerging with new wings,

I'm going to leave this all behind

and focus on what the future may bring.

But it's not over yet, ooooh no, this is only the beginning.

There is one more obstacle yet to hurtle even after the pinning.

I might be a bit overreacting but I'm dreading the day...

of a storm on the horizon in the coming of May.

It means that I'm done and there's nothing left to do,

but study my ass off and hope that boards day I'll not rue.

It came in a hurry, though I've been watching,

I'm scared to death, my biggest challenge yet soon coming.

The dreaded NCLEX...the one thing that could shatter my dreams.

A beast in the shadows,

the one thing that could throw a wrench in my schemes.

But no, I've worked too hard to let it slip away.

To the God of NCLEX-RN we shall pray!

Boards will come soon enough, make no mistake,

but ready I'll be and the test I will take

- my nerves will not fray.

This journey is over, but not to my dismay.

6 years in the making.

May 16, 2009

This is my day.