I always wondered what I wanted to be when I was older, who knew that it would be such a task to figure that out. I feel as though many of you can relate. I wanted to be so many things I just couldn't decide, I felt like my college career is just being wasted, it took me so long to figure it out.
The excitement of picking a career in nursing is a great feeling, when you start your pre reqs you feel so proud after each class completed. The beginning goes smooth and then you hit the biologys, molecular and cell sure we can get through that I mean you have to in order to take A&P right? Easier than it sounds, some of us get through it with ease, others struggle to get that C and even others have to take it again, does that matter? No. Do we give up? No. We keep pushing forward because we want it bad. After passing that cumlatative final, which seemed unheard of until biology we take a breath of fresh air and prepare for the next set of sciences.
We have the challenge of finding the right professor that we hear is the best to take for our A&P's and micro classes. Again we may see familiar faces from the previous semester on our same journey and you may run into others in the halls that have given up on nursing, but not us we keep pushing.
Ahh the first portion of A&P, remembering all those concepts and identifying hundreds of models for parts of the human body, but yet we keep pushing. Bone, after muscle, after histology slide, after cranial nerve, it seemed never ending. Lecture exam after lecture exam some of us could pull our hair out while others took it smooth, not to mention after each exam it seemed there were a little less people in the class. Once again that cumulative final comes along and yet again we scramble to remember things unspoken of for months. Happy to see the semester is almost over we can relax a bit before heading into A&P2 or Micro if we didn't take it the previous semester. When we think we can relax we cant, now we have to think about applying to nursing school. It becomes so surreal and so close you could drive yourself crazy thinking about it. Now we have to prepare for the entrance exams.
It feels like you just got done studying and now you have to study all over for the TEAS, ugh but I haven't taken some of that content since highschool! We complain and groan about the TEAS but yet we still keep pushing, these scores can make or break us. Not only do we have the entrance exam to think about but more classes!? This is going to drive me crazy. We count the number of weeks we have left before we apply and plan to take the TEAS and also prepare for our lecture and lab practicals in the classes we are currently in, talk about busy!
I see some of the people in my class with full time jobs and children pushing through and not giving up in what they want for themselves, and to think this is still pre req stuff...sigh.
We schedule to take our TEAS and after many weeks and even some months of preparation we schedule the exam and wait for the day to come. When that day does come boy oh boy are we excited yet nervous. We make sure we are there early because could you imagine being late to such an important test!? That would be terrible.
We go into the testing center and sit waiting patiently for the test to be given. Four hours later and we walk out thinking about all those questions and even realizing that we answered some wrong and just thinking what you should have put instead, now it feels like an eternity before they release our scores. Waiting days to see the score we constantly check the websites in hopes they release it, and when they finally do we are so excited, some of us are happy while others are sad and must take it again but yet we keep on going.
Time is really closing in on us as we make that final step towards applying to our program. We fill out our applications, submit our test scores and hope that we have done better than all of the people applying in hopes for a seat in our program along with some other friends we have met along the way. We click submit and now the waiting game and nerves begin to set in. What could we have done different to better our chances? What will I do if I don't get in?
Many questions run through our heads as we wait for those letters to come out. The weeks go by and we constantly check the mail for the letter even though they say it will take months for the decision.
We literally stalk the mail box waiting day by day week by week for the letter until one day we see we got a letter from our school! Could this be it, our hearts are racing is this a no, a yes!? For most of us we are experiencing fear and excitement at the same time, this is all we have wanted and talked about for so long the wait is finally over. We take a deep breath and open that letter our eyes so intensely looking over it just looking for that congratulations and when we see it boy do we scream aloud for joy!
Oh my gosh ... I cant believe it ... I got into the nursing program!
It feels so good having that excitement running through your body you just want to tell everyone! Yet many people won't understand how we feel because only we know and people that have done the same journey knows what the letter feels like. Our hard work has paid off we can rest easy at least for now.
For others opening that letter they had felt complete dred some even cry but many don't get discouraged and do what they need to apply again for the next semester. Though all of us have the same journey we experience it different but in the end there is nothing like that feeling of getting that letter.
Only the first portion of our journey is over, we anxiously wait for our orientations and buying our supplies while wondering what the road ahead will be like for us. For many of us we will make it through all of our classes and become the nurses we strive to be, while others it may take a few extra semesters but yet you still become a great nurse and others may find its something they arent interested in and leave for something else. But for all of us here our journeys are beginning and it will be a trying yet fun two years ahead. Some will make it in the end and others will fall short, regardless if we want it bad enough we will succeed. You can finally call yourself a nursing student.
