Nursing school is over! It was a long journey, but it is finally complete. My pinning ceremony is tomorrow, and NCLEX will come soon there after. I've worked so hard to get here, it feels surreal. As I reflect on my journey, I am certain it was only by God's good grace (and, often, divine intervention) that I've made it this far.
Let's look back, shall we?
August 22, 2009
That was my first day back in school 8 years and 3 months after graduating from UCSC. It was a Biology class designed for those going into the medical field. It was 8 hours, every Saturday -- the only time that worked for my family. I made one good friend in that class, who also recently graduated from nursing school in Arizona.
I took six of my prerequisite classes in AZ, at times and days that worked for our busy family. I got straight As in all classes, against some amazing odds (and several flare ups). I applied to three programs and got accepted to 2 of them. But, before school could start, we made the decision to move to Portland.
In Portland, I was told I would need to retake all of my prerequisites. I was fretting (but, praying) for months. After talking to an academic advisor and forwarding a ton of syllabi, course descriptions and transcripts, I was able to transfer most of my credits and only had to retake two classes because of a time limit the school had on the classes. I was waitlisted at first (at #54), but, on June 19, 2012, I got the call that my number was up and was invited to the Class of 2014!
September 20, 2012
My first official day of nursing school at Portland Community College. I only had one class, lab, plus advisory and clinical one day a week. I had a successful term, ending with a high A in the class and a slew of brand new friendships.
Second term started off bumpy. I didn't get any of the choices I had selected for clinical placement. Peter had lost his job as dispatch (but continued to work part time at the detention center). Jeremiah was struggling (socially) in school. I had insomnia. About halfway through the term, my Crohn's disease flared up badly and I couldn't do much about it due to lack of insurance. I was doing well in Pharmacology, but barely scraping Bs in Patho and Nurse Theory. But, I was surviving. I wasn't even thinking there might be a chance I could fail.
March 13, 2013
Nurse theory final. I needed a 75% to pass. I got a 73.5% I had officially failed out of nursing school. I ended up scraping As in Patho and Pharm that semester. And, had they actually gone by points and not based everything on that final, I'd have gotten a B (84%) in Nursing Theory.
But, let's not dwell on that shall we?
April 5, 2013
Peter gets an email from SLO county, informing him of a job opening at his old work. We ponder for a week before he decides to apply for it. After prayer and heavy consideration, we decided he should at least go for it (he didn't have to take it if we eventually decided we wanted to stay in Portland).
Late June 2013
Peter is "conditionally" selected for employment in SLO county. By this point, we had decided moving would be the best decision for our family. California was home. So, I started emailing with the director of Nursing at Cuesta College about a possible transfer into the program. After weeks of back and forth, she told me it couldn't be done and to apply for the following Fall admission. I scrambled to get everything together to get the application in by the due date: July 31.
September 2013
Took the TEAS. Get a 91 on it.
Waiting waiting waiting.
February 18, 2014
Get my letter of acceptance into Cuesta's Class of 2016! Flash forward to now.
There were a lot of ups and downs throughout the past two years, but, it seems as though it's all been worth it. In a short time, I will be able to call myself a nurse. And, I know that's a tremendous accomplishment. But, still, I'm a little disappointed because, for the first time in my life, I'm not graduating with honors. It was a hard blow to my ego, but I've had some time to come to terms with it. I decided that my GPA only considered Cuesta credits and I didn't have many of those (only nursing school). I decided that a 3.47 is a pretty darn good GPA for a busy Mom, whose husband works crazy hours and who has no family nearby to help with child care or anything like that. Besides, if ALL my credits were taken into consideration, I'd have a 3.6, and that's something to be proud of, especially considering the "D" PCC gave me in Winter term.
What a journey. It's the end of the era, but the beginning of a whole new world. Bring on NCLEX!
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