Don’t let someone else’s experience (good or bad) be your own experience

First I must start this post by saying, “I have so much to share and say and I’m at my breaking point in the semester, so I’m extremely excited, and crazy and my thoughts are scattered…so I suppose my warning is that this post will most likely look like my brain = a jumbled mess!!!!” So…you’ve been warned. Continue to read with caution!

Come on nursing school buddies...we can do this!

I cannot believe that it’s a matter of days until graduation. I just finished my last lecture (so much fun to say), I have one more final (a week from today), and then it’s to the pinning ceremony and a graduate nurse I will be! There are approximately 222 hours or 13,339 minutes until the pinning ceremony. This semester has been a blast. I think level 4 is the epitome of nursing school. It's hard, it's fun, it challenges you, it pushes you to your breaking point, and then it shows you what you can be and what you're capable of. While most of it was organized there were still the moments when you had no idea what time something was going to happen, when a case study was due (or when it would be open), there were times when you had no idea what your instructor was talking about. That hasn’t changed. However, in the middle of my last lecture (I told you I like saying that!) I had an epiphany!!!

This was my great revelation: Don’t let someone else’s experience (good or bad) be your own experience. You have to experience things for yourself for the first time. If you let someone else’s experience define your own experience then you’re missing the entire point. We go through things in life (this doesn’t apply just towards nursing school) that make us who we are. If we let someone tell us what we should feel, how we should act, or what will happen then we’re missing the experience and the opportunity to learn and grow and become a better person. I went into level four just knowing it was going to be rough and hard and terrible because of all the negative things I had heard about our coordinator. When in reality, it was a phenomenal semester. Yes, the material is hard, yes you still have to choose the best answer out of all the correct options, but what else is new?! Before I started level four I had to tell myself that I can’t let other individual’s past experiences determine my own experience. I had to go into this semester with an open mind and knowing that I wasn't going to let someone's past experience rule my last semester of nursing school. I had to experience it for myself and then I could decide what I thought of it, but not until I'd been through it myself. 

Some of you may just be laughing at my realization but honestly feel like I had a huge revelation today. I think of the most common question(s) people ask one another is, “How was it? What was it like? What should I expect? Was it hard?” In some cases those are good questions to ask…but in other aspects if we know exactly what to expect and if we know what is around the corner then we lose our ability to think critically. We lose the ability to hone in on our survival skills. Those are important parts to each person’s existence (and we also don't know what someone else went through to have the experience that they did). So there you have my words of wisdom for the day…and just this once I won’t charge you!!! ;)

Our clinical coordinator who does the majority of our lectures is phenomenal. I love her lectures. I feel that they’re excellent, they make since, they’re organized, and they do help us prepare for the exams. Well, anyways, before class started we had a presentation by the people of Hurst who do an NCLEX preparation class. After our presentation our instructor said she was going to call roll, but that this was important because she was going to be double checking that she could pronounce our names correctly for the pinning ceremony. So my dear friend leaned over to me and said, “I dare you to ask her to call you by your full name (with a huge grin on her face)” *side note…for those of you who may not know my full name is Margaret Sarah Elizabeth Rosecrans…just a bit of a mouthful, but a great name regardless*    So not one to shy away from a challenge I accepted. (I had the full intention of telling her after I gave her a hard time that I was just kidding and wanted to see her reaction). So she called my name and said the usual, “Margaret Rose”N”crant”z” …I politely corrected her and told her “Rose-crans” and then she asked if I wanted my middle initial “S” to be announced too..to which I replied with a stoically straight face, “Actually I was wondering if you could say Sarah Elizabeth…Margaret Sarah Elizabeth Rosecrans”…and she smiled and said, “oh of course” and starts putting it into the computer…now by now all my friends are laughing and the class is kind of giggling and I tell her, “I’m just giving you a hard time”…the only problem is that she didn’t hear that part!!! Yeah, who’s the funny one now?! And she continued on down the list. I decide not to make a big deal and just go with it because it would give us all a good laugh anyways right? Well, after lecture I decide to just go tell her that I was pulling her leg and that she didn’t really have to say my full name. When I tell her that I was joking she says something along the lines of, “ARE YOU SERIOUS? NOPE! I’m going to say your full name, add a couple extra names and the end and maybe even throw in the third somewhere…you better be at pinning ceremony!” hahahaha…and a little while later she said, “Oh you made my day, I can’t wait for the pinning ceremony” So there we have it. I left my mark in the world of nursing school! I can’t wait for pinning ceremony. I think it will be perfect since I am at the end of the alphabet, so everyone will be in need of a good laugh! :D

Oh what else?! Well, I’m attempting to overcome the overwhelming anxiety that I feel knowing that I have to start putting in my resume! I was looking at jobs yesterday and it just blew my mind that in a week I’m going to be eligible for an endless array of opportunities. The sky is the limit…and let me tell you…I’m more than ready to turn in my two weeks at Target. While I’m grateful for the fact that they worked with my school schedule and it paid my way through nursing school, I absolutely abhor the world of retail. I’m praying I will be blessed with a job as soon as possible so I can go turn in my two weeks and kiss that part of my past goodbye!

I think the general consensus going around is that everyone is in complete and utter shock that we’re graduating. It still hasn’t hit me and I don’t know that it will until I take (and pass) my NCLEX and start working! It’s intimidating and terrifying and exciting and a complete miracle! Aside from the anxiety attacks that hit every once and a while we’re all on cloud nine. I think the saddest part of finishing nursing school is saying goodbye to the friends we’ve made. I love going to school and learning with my co-students, I love the friendship and the strong bond we’ve all made, I love every aspect of every individual I’ve met along this journey. I can’t wait to cheer each one on as they call their name at our pinning ceremony!

What is it Dr. Seuss said, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened” or something along those lines! I’m smiling because I know it’s just the beginning of amazing friendships, adventurous career, and knowing there’s never going to be a dull moment in this career.

I suppose I have one last thing to say…I know you all are wondering what I’m like when I’m at my breaking point right?! Well, let me just give you this little look into the life of Maggie during finals…yesterday I was walking with my friends to our vehicles and the entire way I just broke out into song for every reply I had to say, I used my obnoxious “target lady voice” (from SNL by Kristin Wig), I broke out into a couple of dances…and during my last dance routine I went to jump…and my backpack strap snapped…thankfully nothing (and no one) went tumbling down. It was just another one of those hysterical moments shared with some amazing friends when everyone so desperately needed a good laugh.  

this is how I felt I looked as I danced! ;)

Ahhh…I suppose that brings me to my last bit that I have to share…if you’re going to survive life…be able to laugh at yourself. I could be a big sourpuss right now after all the laughing that has happened on my behalf, but the truth is…life is funny…and if you can’t laugh about it you’re in for a miserable time! :D So go laugh!