I Always Wanted to Be A Nurse
Apparently I always wanted to be a nurse.
I got home from work last night and on my counter was a book, “All About Me,” my mother had sent in the mail. It was one of those kindergarden through 12th grade books (including pictures and comments!) about friends and aspirations, grades and boyfriends.
My husband was dying to flip through it with me (he had already looked at it!) and laugh at my ongoing short bobbed haircut that had a few layering variations, and comment on the outfits I chose to wear for the first day back to school. I had to laugh as well as we looked at them. I always thought I looked so cute! I will never make fun of the photos of him wearing his orange Toughskins again! (O.K., so I probably will.) I enjoyed looking at the book and remembering some old times, and some outfits I really thought were awesome!
But what I noticed most was the running theme, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Since Kindergarden I either wanted to be a nurse or a teacher. Nurse won out with the most votes of 7.
(At this stage in my life I want to be an educated nurse! hahhhahaha…)
Looking back at the schoolgirl book has been a gift in a few ways…one, it brings me back to some very fun times in my life…two, it shows me NEVER to wear my hair that short again…three, it has given me a kick in the pants to get exercising again…as my weight has dramatically increased since graduation!
But, most importantly, it has reminded me that I have always wanted to be a nurse…and that being burnt out in the everyday grind is different than being burnt out with nursing.
The gift of being a nurse is so multi-layered. Besides the patient care aspect of touching people’s lives physically and emotionally, we are privileged with a profession that takes us anywhere we want to go…the ER, the OR, ICU, NICU, Med-Surg, school nursing, clinic nursing, home health, hospice, nurse educator, flight nurse, interventional radiology, psych nursing, travel nursing, clinical nurse specialist in many fields, NP…and on and on it goes.
When did you know you wanted to be a nurse? Where are you in nursing now? Where do you want to go?
