...sigh....

This has been the semester from HELL and I’m glad that it’s finally over. Never in my life did I expect school to cause so much mental and emotional stress. I have to start off by saying that if anyone was affected by my mental and emotional breakdowns “I AM SORRY”.

I know that last year in nursing gets tough, I heard about how difficult it was and I tried to prepare myself for it. I think no matter how many horror stories you hear and words of advice you get, it’s never quiet enough because if you’re not living it and if you haven’t lived it then you will never really understand how HARD it really is. There were many times in which I contemplated quitting but I’ve been pursuing this for too damn long and I have invested too much damn time and money into this to just quit like that… plus this is what I want, and I always go after what I am passionate about.

The things that I love about being a nurse are indescribable because you have to have the heart that goes along with nursing to understand the feelings that are attached to it. I can sit and talk about the nasty poop stories, sad and painful bed ulcers or openings patients have, or about the funny crazy talk some patients have, maybe even share some love stories of dedicated spouses that come to the hospital day after day and care and stay true to wedding vows once said “in sickness and in health”, or maybe I can talk about how there are some patients that are left forgotten by their loves ones in the hospital with only the nursing staff to provide love and attention.

The academic aspect is really hard and with good reason, I personally would like to know that the person who is providing care for my health (nurse) is astute and apt for the job. They try to break you and in some cases it worked, I know of a few students that by mid semester had dropped out. In many cases most students just stuck with it and tried to deal with it as best possible. In my case I know that I cried many times mostly out of frustration due to the pressure and stress I was under, I dreaded going to some classes and other classes I really enjoyed, so there was a balance. The end of semester was the worst of it and I honestly don’t know how I survived it, but I went to exams and studied my butt off… Let’s just hope that it paid off. I feel confident that I passed all my exams, however the exams are worth a huge chunk of the final grade meaning it can change the final mark significantly. Marks will be up later this week so fingers crossed… Its finally over ... sigh... only 1 more semester till graduation