My Cousin's Graduation, Part 1

My cousin is the baby of her family, although you would not know it based on her height. The tallest of three girls, my cousin excels in athletics the way the tallest shrubs absorb the most sunlight. Meaning, my cousin has had the support of her older sisters throughout her career. She recently signed with a local college to play soccer and will be moving away from home for the first time come August.

My cousin, the graduate, surrounded by
 her cousins, aunt, and great aunt.

First of all, I am ridiculously proud of her for going away to college. It takes a lot of determination and courage to decide to move away from home to pursue education, whether or not it ends in a "successful" career. Being away from family for an extended period of time is an experience I recommend. It has helped shape who I am - and as homesick as I get, I do not regret living away hours away from home. 

Secondly, my cousin is pursuing a collegiate career in a sport. How incredible is that?! I can only imagine the increased level of competition athletes face in college. Not only that, but they are students as well! In the hopes that student athletes take advantage of the opportunities given to them to further their education as well as career, the strength it takes to endure the pressure they face is admirable. 

Thirdly, my cousin is adventuring into higher education with an open mind in regards to her career. She has interests that will guide her, but she is entering with an undeclared major. Knowing my cousin, she will not let the array of course choices faze her in determining her path. If she is one thing, she is headstrong.

My hope is that I can play some role in her college career - helping her whenever she needs it or giving her the encouragement she needs to continue on her journey.

Frazzled by Learning, Astounded by Knowledge

With all the studying I have been doing lately, I have rarely taken even a moment to appreciate how much I already know. Instead, I have (as usual) become slightly overwhelmed at how much I do not know. 

Tonight, as I was sifting through my overloaded email inbox, I found this gem:

Language
by J. Mark 

It's tragic
the way that everything falls away
when you name it:
those there, looming over this
here, their darkness,
their ability to catch the light
from that, there, hanging brightly.
It sounds so ridiculous to say it that way,
but there they all are:
the sun in the sky
over the small green earth, the peaks
that pull the horizon so close, so high,
glowing, their valleys blue-black
with shadow.
In our eyes they are the mountains
that we were promised: immutable.
But in word
they may as well be made of sugar.
They melt under their names
as under a hot running tap.
I could say nothing,
I should
give up singing these empty psalms,
hold your face tenderly between my hands
and turn it towards the view 

The idea that something as simple as describing something can be so complex in a multi-dimensional way.  It may just be deliriousness from sleep deprivation, but this poem reminded me that I know things that other people (or rather, other little people) do not know yet. For that, I should be mind blown. Yes, I am sure children will grow up and learn all about the sun and the stars - but will they know the things I know about schizophrenia, GERD, or animism? They might... but then again, they might not.

My clinical advisor recently reminded me of the quote, "Anything you learn becomes yours." That makes me feel pretty well off.

Nursing School - Semester Two

As I type this, I am lying on my bed contemplating whether I want to start writing this or whether I want to sleep instead. The thing is, if I went to sleep right now, it would be the earliest I have been to sleep since returning to school. This is not to say that we have been deluged with homework (though we have) but we have been given copious amounts of reading to accomplish and study from.

Not to mention, this weekend will be the second weekend in a row I have left campus for other plans. This means that I have had to complete three extra days worth of studying to prepare for a lack of studying part of tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday, and part of Monday. The point being that I have been pretty busy lately. 

If I am not asleep, in the library, or in class one can assume I am most certainly dead. 

That being said, I am enjoying my mental health and pharmacology courses immensely. I also happen to be taking a course on medical anthropology which is fascinating and a course on Spanish healthcare terminology which is very useful. My chronic conditions course is alright so far and I have no complaints about labs. 

As much as I complain about not having a social life because of all the studying I have been doing, I am really having a good time. I love taking the streetcar to the library and reading before bed again. I am looking forward to more family time this weekend, this time to celebrate my cousins' confirmation and my birthday. Following along with my sea side metaphor, the waves of joy and gratitude have increased in frequency as of late and I welcome them with bated breath. 

Liberal Arts

This topic stems from the movie Liberal Arts, staring How I Met Your Mother star Josh Radnor. The film details the unlikely relationship between Jesse and Zibby, an alumnus and current student of the same college. Though the years between them span more than a decade, Zibby and Jesse are kindred spirits. Jesse, however, has reservations about their relationship and the two ultimately make the difficult decision whether to continue seeing each other or not.

One amusing part of Liberal Arts was the conversation Jesse and Zibby have about presumably a Twilight-esque fiction novel. Jesse repeatedly voices his dislike for the novel and implores Zibby to provide one good reason she enjoys it. The book in question apparently is not well written nor provides any literary significance, yet is well liked by millions of readers. Jesse questions the readership and, in essence, Zibby's maturity, simply because her views differ from his. Zibby rejoinders with the point of a liberal arts education - meeting and disagreeing with people.

What is the point of a liberal arts education? I always took liberal arts education to mean that I could take whatever classes I wanted in addition to the classes toward my major. I looked for and applied only to liberal arts colleges and ultimately decided on a nursing program that would seemingly allow me to complete a minor and study abroad.

Although my sister attended college a couple years before me, her collegiate career was much different from mine. I figured out soon enough that things were not going to work out the way I had planned. I ended up having to put up a little extra work to complete my minor and I am working on studying abroad for January Term of next year.

Now, after two and a half years of college, I consider Liberal Arts as having various means of communicating and discussing different points of view. There are all kinds of courses, clubs, events, and activities offered to students and oftentimes are a prime topic of conversation. As strange as it sounds, I enjoy disagreeing with people and being able to discuss why. It is invigorating and empowering and I suggest it be attempted daily for premium health and wellness.

Christmas Reflections

This past month has been a whirlwind of struggles and tasks accomplished - mainly to do with school and academics. The first week was finishing up projects for three of my classes and preparing for my one and only final the week after. The second week was mostly spend stressing over finals, stressing over a regional club meeting for M.E.Ch.A., saying goodbye to friends as they left for the holidays, and feeling homesick. The meeting went as well as could be expected during a college break. 

Once home, I was able to reconnect with friends and spend plenty of time with my family. We furtively shopped and wrapped around each other as Christmas drew nearer and even got to play in the snow! One evening, my godmother took me to see It's A Wonderful Life performed by the local theater. Eventually my sister arrived and my brother and I embarked on what ended up being a 2.5 hour adventure around SeaTac in the late evening. 

Christmas was well spent with my family, including my grandparents, great-aunts, aunts, parents, and siblings. The food was delicious! I'm a sucker for ambrosia. 

Now that Christmas Day is here, the Christmas season may begin. Merry Christmas!

Disturbed Sleep Pattern Related to Anxiety, Secondary to Nursing School

The title of this post is in the format of a Nursing Diagnosis. A nursing diagnosis is sort of like a medical diagnosis in that it identifies a particular aspect of a patient to treat, however, it is has more to do with the individual, family, or community experience/response to the medical diagnosis or life processes than the medical diagnosis itself. It is basically distinguishing things that nurses can do to affect a patient's treatment experience. I am going to take you through my nursing diagnosis step-by-step, partially because it is an educational experience for me and partially because it is a de-stressing activity.

Nursing school has so many side effects on nursing students. There are obvious ones like increased critical thinking and communication skills, decreased gag-reflex, and impaired writing skills. One major one for me is increased anxiety levels. Up until now, I have dealt with the anxiety-inducing events with ease, following the thought process that the event is going to happen anyway so I might as well prepare as best as I can for it while I can instead of stressing about it. Now, with a completed medication administration performance evaluation under my belt (as of this afternoon) and a major exam coming up tomorrow, my mindset is a bit less accepting. This afternoon, immediately before my performance evaluation, I felt the first symptoms of my anxiety. They diminished slightly after running at the gym, but resumed at a greater intensity after I returned to campus and studied with peers. My anxiety, as it is due to more than one factor of nursing school, is secondary to nursing school.

Although my heightened anxiety is of reasonable concern, it is not my major concern at the moment - my lack of sleep is. A "disturbed sleep pattern" is a nurse's way of saying I am not getting enough sleep for some reason. Despite having the right environment to sleep (a quiet, warm, dark room), an adequate amount of time to sleep, and providing myself with an almost excessive level of comfort (body pillow, three blankets, and a stuffed cat to cuddle - DO NOT JUDGE ME) I am consistently unable to fall asleep. Whenever I try to sleep, my brain will not "power down" and I continue thinking about the same things that are causing me stress, further amplifying my anxiety.

As I write, I realize that the explanation of my anxiety is not complete; I have not spoken to what anxiety is and how I experience anxiety (such as the physical response). I will not go into detail in this post about it as I do want to try to get some rest in preparation for my exam tomorrow, but I will emphasize that everyone experiences and expresses anxiety differently and that some forms of anxiety relief are not as effective for some as others.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my brief explanation of nursing diagnoses! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments below.

SICK AND TIRED OF BEING SICK AND TIRED

I am finally getting over this awful cold though at this point, it does not sound like it. I can tell because my aches, sneezes, headaches, and lethargy are gone and have been replaced with renewed energy and determination to study for the upcoming exams.

We have been focusing on cardiovascular (heart, blood, and lungs) function, including tissue perfusion (spreading blood to the body) and related issues as well as medications. We had an interesting lecture by a substitute professor on pharmacodynamics, which is basically what drugs do in the body and how they do it. We do not fully study pharmacology until second semester, but it fit in with medication administration section.

Anyway, once I began studying I felt oddly at ease - comfortable, even. I do not know if it is mostly because my lifestyle very much resembles that of a student - sitting for long periods of time, rarely eating, drinking lots of caffeine - or if I enjoy studying that much. I mean, I do truly enjoy studying, but I wonder if my normal academically-oriented routine has become a sort of relationship.

There are often jokes shared about having a relationship with one's job, but I am starting to worry that I have a relationship with academia. Here are my top 10 reasons:

1. Most of my time is spent with it
2. I talk about it constantly with my friends
3. I can only take minimal breaks from it before feeling slightly guilty
4. I drink far too much with it (caffeine)
5. Sometimes I sleep with it
6. I can look/feel terrible and it does not mind
7. I spend quite a bit of money on it
8. It keeps me awake at night
9. My friends all know it and some even despise it
10. No matter how upset I get with it, I keep coming back

Disclaimer: This might be residual brain-scrambling from being sick.

It's Been a Rough Week.

This week has challenged me more mentally and physically than any other week of nursing school. Returning from my relaxing week back home, I literally hit the ground running - I was going to miss the streetcar and have to wait another twenty-something minutes for the next one. I had several meetings scheduled and events to arrange as well as homework and working out. Yet with all that I am doing, I could not outrun the cold that is going around campus. I am currently fighting, tooth-and-nail to get over it, but for some reason, I cannot shake it! I need not tell you how FRUSTRATING IT IS.

With all that is going on, I am more frustrated with the sources of my friends' worries. One of the biggest concerns has been clinical sites that lack concern for residents to the extent that the residents are not receiving adequate care. Another concern has been our research course, which does not seem to satisfactorily prepare nursing students for the papers assigned. The last major concern has been keeping track of all the assignments due for each class. Although it does not seem like a significant concern, the Linfield nursing curriculum is linked with four classes a semester that must be taken concurrently and sometimes course assignments seem to run into each other because they are similar in topic.

 It is unfortunate that some clinical sites do not provide adequate care for its residents, however, as nursing students we should take that upon ourselves to make a good example. This is what we are taught to do - to develop our critical thinking skills and make the healthcare community better as best as we can! It seems daunting for a first semester nursing student, but we are also adults with two years of education behind us.

As far as our research course goes, I applaud students' efforts to go above and beyond realistic expectations of educational standards of nurses. Not many nursing students will go into research, but they still feel the need to learn the material. The students are struggling to write a literature review. Not only have we had very little experience with APA formatting, we do not understand the structure of a literature review. It is one thing to have very little instruction but plenty of resources and it is another thing to have very little instructions and very little resources. Fortunately, students have bonded together and commiserated over the lack of collective knowledge.

The last concern my friends' had was over the seemingly haphazard scheduling of assignments. One piece of advice given to us at orientation was to write all the assignments and projects out in our planners so we would always have a complete reference. The unfortunate part of this, is that professors often rearrange schedules and accommodate to the learning styles of each class. This can form a jumble of problems for those nursing students who like to have clearly defined schedules.

I apologize for my rant, I just want people to realize that nursing students are humans too. My friends and I are all compassionate people that want to be the best nurses, and people, we can be. Nursing school is challenging me in ways I had not even imagined - and it is only the first semester! If all weeks are like this, I may need more support, but I refuse to give in and fall into the monotonous stereotype of a nurse. I am not going to college, putting in this much work, and drinking this much caffeine to end up like that.

Heurme- What? Mixing Anthropologic and Nursing Research

Today in my scholarship of nursing class we discussed at length the different types of qualitative research and some of their methods. It was exhaustive - and I am still get confused on what the difference between interpretive, heuristic, and heurmenuitics is! What was most annoying was my professor continually interjecting that we do not necessarily need to know further detail into the area we were studying or confused about unless we go into research.

Anyway, it reminded me of anthropological studies and how anthropologists conduct ethnographic research. It makes so much more sense to me from an anthropological perspective than from a nursing perspective! Nursing research makes me wonder whether I would have been better off as an anthropologist. I enjoy the idea of research, but the thought of obtaining a statistician simply because I cannot understand the reasoning behind the math irritates me. I would rather just do it myself instead of having someone tell me what to do.

The fact that (1) I could not grasp all of the concepts based on what my professor was lecturing and (2) my professor refused to answer questions that lead to a more in-depth explanation of the concepts that I did grasp initially discouraged me from wanting to pursue more information about nursing research. Then it occurred to me that my understanding of anthropological research might actually help me understand nursing research more than I thought. I have scheduled a meeting with my professor so I can express my confusion and interest in learning more about research. I am sure my professor will be confused by my persistence of the topics we were discussing in class today and will dissuade me from questioning the concepts we "do not necessarily need to know," but I hope he will dismiss my inquisitiveness as characteristic of a proper college student.

Who knows? Maybe in the future I will conduct research and implement both anthropological and nursing processes in my studies.

FIRST DAY OF CLINICALS!!

Basically all of my morning led up to clinical. Or at least that's how I felt. I was not nervous or anxious until I went searching for my ID badge. For some reason I had slipped it into the front pocket of my backpack and skipped over that pocket until about a minute before I was supposed to leave. My frantic search built up my anxiety for the evening ahead and arriving early definitely made it worse. Fortunately there was a chapel nearby so I took a moment to duck in and say a quick prayer.

Anyway, there was no need to worry. The nurses, CNAs, and staff were more than accommodating and many of the residents we encountered were encouraging and glad to have us there. Clinical proved itself to be an integral part in our education - for instance, I knew the steps to transfer a patient, but in actually doing it I realized sensitivity and forethought must accompany the steps. Thoughts such as adjusting pillows before seating a resident or scooting the resident back in the seat to make the resident more comfortable are simple things that one may not think about when learning from a textbook or practicing on a fully functional partner.

For fear of HIPAA and falling asleep at the keyboard (it has been a very long evening), I will cut myself off here. I hope to share more of my thoughts about and adventures in clinical in the future!

The "Almost Family" Effect

I worked throughout high school primarily as an audio technician and in college as a food service worker and Resident Advisor. I had thought that when I started my job as a professor's assistant I would have a very professional mindset and deal with everything accordingly. Not so! Considering the fact I was given the job so graciously by a friend I met through theatre, I should not have expected such formalities. Instead, I have met and made friends with faculty that care about me as a student as well as a person. For instance, my "boss" sent me an encouraging email after finding out I had my assessment tonight. The professor simply suggested taking a walk or running before the lab to help me relax and wished me well, but in doing so I knew I would become as fond of my boss as I have my other bosses.

I also became fast friends with one of the people I will be relying on and working closely with. She immediately offered her assistance with anything I might need help with and noted that I was a theatre enthusiast. We spent a good half an hour talking about theatre and the struggles of being a nursing student while having so many theatre opportunities in the area. She came up with the idea of getting a group of students together to see a local theatre's season opener and proposed the idea to my friend who is, coincidentally, also on student government. I was so surprised at her resourcefulness and her ability to make me immediately feel comfortable.

Fast forward several hours... I emerged from the elevators thinking that I would have some time to review one last time, but no. My clinical advisor is waiting at the open door with two of my fellow classmates and offers to get me started if I was ready. Not wanting to hold up the procession, I went into the lab and began the assessment. Afterward, my advisor mentioned one of my strengths as my ability to make things "flow" what with my almost constant conversation and demeanor. I know it was only a practice round for the real thing, but I hope I can be like my friend earlier and make the client feel as comfortable as she made me feel.

Obviously it is hard to be fully at ease in the healthcare setting (unless, perhaps, you are a healthcare provider), but I think people appreciate being treated by people that make one feel like they are almost related. I like to think of it as the "almost family" effect. Treating people with familiarity and kindness relaxes them and convinces them that you are as trusting as a family member might be. Not that you want to pretend or trick your client, but allowing them a sort of excuse to divulge information or respond in ways that they might not normally.

As you may be able to tell, I am very much looking forward to our time at the clinical sites. I hope that whatever happens, it will be a learning experience that I can benefit from somehow and share.

The Side-Effects of Studying: Part One

We have our first exam coming up on Friday in a course called Foundations. My professor does not have any presentations or study guides to study off of, so most of my studying has been off of notes I have taken in class. My professor told us to think of everything we have learned in IEL and in class and that would be all we needed to know for the exam. As if it were that simple to synthesize all the practical and structured knowledge we have acquired in the last five weeks of classes.

Her seemingly lack of guidance in studying for the impending exam made me think about the overall knowledge we have gained. I summed it up to two main questions I must ask myself when answering NCLEX-style questions (National Council Licensure Examination):

• What is ultimately going to be the best option for the care and safety of my patient?
• What does this mean in context to my patient?

I like how Linfield teaches using the patient-centered approach - it reinforces my ideal of the compassionate nurse, which is something I strive to be. I like that patient care is so important that part of our first assessments in the IEL curriculum incorporates "applying principles of therapeutic communication."

The presumption many nursing students have is that the course on communication will be "easy." I have already found it quite useful in addressing many fears nursing students have (i.e. talking too much and not being able to establish rapport) in beginning clinical work. It makes me proud to know that Linfield nursing students are considerate enough of patients that they think about verbal interactions and exchanges as much as physical procedures and interactions.

I'm not quite sure this makes sense... I've been studying for quite a while and, as a result, my brain is having difficulty formulating coherent thoughts not directly related to skin assessment or nursing interventions. Hopefully my thought comes across and that I receive some feedback from you as to whether you agree/disagree with it or simply some tales of healthcare experiences you have had.

Thank you and goodnight.

Today Was Not a Busy Day

Let me clarify: the day itself was not busy, I made it busy by being productive. Shall I compare the list of things I wanted to do today with the list of things I had to do with the list of things I actually did today?

Want	Had To Do	Did
Dress up for Wildcat Wednesday (it's a Linfield thing)	Classes (2 of them)	ALL OF THE THINGS!!!
Go to the gym	Drop off prescription
Grocery shop	Pick up stamps
Homework not due tomorrow	Send a form to my mother
Leisure read
Organize computer files
Apply for more jobs
Look up directions to CAPS (I'll explain later)
Watch an episode of Firefly
Pick up ID sticker (again, it's a Linfield thing)

That about sums it up. I literally did all the things in that chart and more. I was a bit sleep-deprived, but I compensated by drinking coffee around the mid-afternoon. Anyway, point being that the day itself wasn't that bad to begin with - the usual classes and mini-errand-running - but what kept me busy was the fact I crammed the day with the rest of the things listed. I accomplished all that I wanted to and more! I am rather astonished at what I did with my day.

It is days like these that I have to remind myself I am an adult, I'm not playing one. That being said, I really need to pace myself... I am exhausted!

Introductions in Nursing

One of my favorite classes of this semester is definitely Clinical/IEL. It is similar to a lab session in other science classes where knowledge is put to practice. In fact, IEL stands for Integrated Experiential Learning. It is also considered Clinical, because after learning the "nursing basics" we are sent out to clinical sites to practice what we know in a safer, less controlled setting.

This week in IEL we have started practicing patient admission assessments which includes taking vital signs and auscultating lung, heart, and bowel sounds. The reason I enjoy IEL is that as we are role-playing and practicing, we can question and constructively instruct each other while maintaining the educational atmosphere characteristic of a normal class lab. Occasionally, the role-playing goes awry and students are detracted from the purpose of the exercise. I will be honest - tonight I was in a giggly mood. My poor partners were making the most of it, but I still feel horrible about my behavior. When it was my turn to assess my "patient," I could not remember several steps on my own and had to check and be prompted. Needless to say, the experience was discouraging.

The process reminded me of rehearsals for a show I assistant stage managed for, Fifth of July by Lanford Wilson. New to the process of collegiate theatre, I was unprepared for the abruptness of line-calling during rehearsals. The stage manager interrupted frequently with the right lines and right phrases immediately if not before the actor finished calling for the line. As one of the people who constantly counts her mistakes, I reminded myself of the reason I was not an actor. During the remainder of the IEL process, however, I became more determined to remember the steps not simply as I was taught them, but as their overall significance in the admission process.

As my clinical advisor told me, every patient interaction will be unique in some way. Thus, the order of the assessment process will deviate slightly, but the process will always be the same. There is no script for this act, but the act always has the same events: introductions, recording vital signs, auscultating body sounds, and so on.

Hispanic Heritage Month Breakfast

I don't know if I forgot to mention, but I'm Latina. This morning I had the opportunity to attend the Hispanic Heritage Month Breakfast in Salem, Oregon with some of my fellow Latina schoolmates. I was completely underdressed for the occasion, but I didn't let that ruin my experience. The breakfast itself was delightful - scrambled eggs with sausage, roasted red potatoes, pico de gallo, salsa roja, corn and flour tortillas, and fruit were some of the items offered. The featured speakers included a business associate, lawyer, the executive director of Latino Network, and a doctor.

The first to speak was Frank Garcia who works in the office of the governor. He proudly reminded us of legislation that recently passed, including tuition and drivers' license equity in the state of Oregon. He encouraged us to continue being active politically.

The second featured speaker was Alberto Moreno, who is a part of the Oregon Commission on Hispanic Affairs. He discussed the positive impact of migrant workers on Oregon's economy and the average life expectancy of a migrant worker as compared to non-migrant workers. Moreno spoke of the prenatal care act that was recently passed that made prenatal care available to all pregnant women regardless of documentation.

The third featured speaker was Jose Gonzalez, president of the Latino Business Alliance of the Willamette Valley. His speech on supporting local Latin@ businesses was inspiring and thought-provoking.

Following Jose Gonzalez was Carmen Rubio, executive director of Latino Network. The master of ceremonies including in her introduction several more organizations she was involved with. She spoke of her commitment to those organizations and introduced a colleague, Nancy Ramirez Arriaga. Both women worked on the short film "The Oregon Latin@ List" along with many others present at the breakfast. We then proceeded to watch the film; I was surprised at how succinctly everyone spoke about childhood and families and the connections I was making with my own experiences.

After the film, I mentally prepared myself for the presumably long, emotional speech given by the keynote speaker. The keynote speaker was Dr. Yara Delgado and her speech was quite the opposite of what I was expecting. She spoke briefly about her childhood, but mostly about her education and vaguely about the struggles she faced during it. Amidst her 17-minute long speech (she timed herself), she uttered a statement that struck me as being so truthful it almost hurt - "I was a mutt." She was referring to her experience in being seen as Americanized by her Puerto Rican peers and vice versa.
I oftentimes feel the same way, although I might add to her statement, saying instead, "I am a mutt, stuck between both breeds, wanting, but never willing to be either."

Dr. Delgado concluded her speech saying, "...find yourself becoming a leader." I like the idea of not intentionally becoming, but discovering a leadership role. It signifies that one does not simply become leaders because one wants to - one becomes a leader when the situation arises.

Anyway, I could go on about my experiences and my thoughts and opinions about the morning, but I will end here and leave more to be discussed than not.

Updates: Nursing school, Portland, Challenges, and etc.

I am writing this from my cozy room in the Linfield Good Samaritan School of Nursing campus in Portland, Oregon. In brief, this last month has been a whirlwind of classes, exploration, food, and friends - and I'm loving it! Classes are going well, I have enjoyed exploring Portland and the surrounding area, food is expensive and SO GOOD, and friends are my favorite. My favorite class at the moment is actually lab/clinical because of the hands-on nature and the clinical advisors are very informative and fun. I have ventured out every week to explore Portland, including the Saturday market and part of the Pearl District. As there is no cafeteria on this campus, I have had fun grocery shopping and cooking for myself - though with NW 23rd nearby, my friends and I decided that Friday night dinners would have to be a thing.

Moving on: I failed to complete the August photo-a-day challenge, however, I will be attempting the challenge again in October with a better understanding of what to expect. I am so very close to completing the AFI Films challenge, but with little access to a movie library I am a little set back. I have renewed motivation to complete the challenges now that I have gotten settled with nursing school, although I have to say I am renewed in my motivation to become a nurse as well. I feel as if I have studied harder the last few weeks than I can remember.

I suppose my point is, I am a full-time nursing student but I will continue contributing to this blog as much as possible. :)