First semester, nursing craziness.

First came the excitement, the purchases (stethoscope, uniforms, books), and last came reality...

Truthfully, I don't know how I made it through first semester. The very first day in orientation, when we were given our clinical assignments, I began to understand that my life as it had been was about to change drastically. For those who may read this, understand this: when in nursing school, you must give up control over everything. The most infuriating thing about this was the fact that different clinical instructors had different expectations for the students, and for some reason, I was in the group that had to do a lot of preparatory work prior to clinical. It was so annoying to have to work day and night just to keep up, while others had plenty of time to do all of their assignments. Outside of that, the classes were challenging but still interesting, all the way until the end of the semester, when things became worse after I realized that my most challenging class (pharmacology) would have 3 exams (no, I am not exaggerating) in the last two weeks of the semester. Overall, I had 6 exams, after one was cancelled by the *best* nursing teacher ever! However, just like I imagined, it really hit me like a ton of bricks to have to do all of those, and like everyone else in my cohort, I am just glad it's over. I cannot claim to not have known how challenging this would be, but there is one thing that did surprise me. Everyone said that we would make lifelong friends here in nursing school, and I have to admit that I didn't believe them, but it is absolutely true. We have studied together, shared our lives, hopes and dreams, laughed, cried (OK, maybe it was just me that cried, but my nursing school friends were there for me, with a tissue at the ready) and I am so glad that I got to know these wonderful girls. I cannot imagine it any other way. Of course, now that we are close, the school changed everything around, and I have not a single friend in my new clinical site. *sigh*... Time to make new lifelong friends!! Finally, I would like to add that reading the scriptures before studying for exams is the absolute best thing I ever did in nursing school. I have no way of explaining how in the world I was able to get good grades in some of the tests I took, it had to be the hand of God helping me. For the first time in a long time, I actually had the courage to ask Doug to give me a blessing right before a big test on finals week. The very first thing said was that Heavenly Father was pleased with me and my effort. That was the best thing ever! Of course, I was advised to seek the Lord's help, and that he was ready to help me. Which gave me enough peace to allow me a peaceful night's sleep. I still find it funny that I dreamt of chasing kittens all around my house, picking them up and putting them in my pockets, but still, I slept soundly enough to dream... :) The one thing I do regret is that I was barely able to give my family any attention except for FHE. I made a point of taking that afternoon off and I am thankful I did. Adela was so excited to have me home to herself today, she is so sweet... I can't wait for Christmas, I get to see my family in Houston, and get some much needed R&R. And so it is, until next time!