The Last 2 Years of My Life - the Pay Off!!

My fan club - Thanks Mom for making the signs!
 A Donovan Graduation tradition...

Yes, I did graduate from my 2 years of $#%^ in May. It felt great to be done but bittersweet to realize I don't have anywhere to go each day now...

John and I still like each other... I think?? :-)  It was tough but I think we'll really be glad we did it all in a few years. 

However, I'm pretty sure it was good timing since this baby is making me absolutely unproductive, lazy and huge. I wouldn't have been able to hobble around the hospital much longer and would have had to kick a patient out of bed so I could rest. 

Each one of my family and tons of my friends helped out so much in the past 2 years with listening to me complain and filling in as mom for my kids. I'd be totally ungrateful if I didn't publicly recognize there is no way I did this thing alone. 

And, although I thought my family would fall apart and die (and sometimes we all felt like that) here we are at the end, most of us smiling. And we're even expanding that afore mentioned family so it can't have been that bad right? We'll just go ahead and remember the good times, not the weekly Tuesday (my hardest day) "discussions" John and I had before falling asleep. 

I general, I didn't have many great things to say about the program, which is really sad since I gave it 2 years of my life. But the one shining star in the whole thing was the clinical leaders, who rocked!! This is my favorite one, Lauren Hayward, who gave it to you straight but also wasn't afraid to compliment you for things done well. And she just knows her stuff and was more than willing to share it. I will really miss the clinical component of school cause it finally felt like we were doing something productive. Although I don't really have any desire to ever take care of a sick old man again - bring on the babies!! 

Except for you Dad. If you get sick I guess I'll make an exception and take care of you since you helped me out so much with kids and everything.  But luckily, you don't show any signs of kicking the bucket anytime soon!!

Me and Kirsten, who kept me sane by mumbling some things under her breath when it just got to be too much and saying the things that needed to be said out loud when everyone was gonna blow!   

The friends were definitely the best part of nursing school though. Hands down. Those are who I'll miss the most and, unfortunately, most live pretty far away. Boo hoo. 

Monica, Shannon and Me - our Rappahannock Group and Teresa - my ally in Labor and Delivery!  Awesome people to have on speed dial! 

Me and Elizabeth (Betsy) - one of the only other young moms in the program. She had 5 little ones and was a total inspiration to me each day when she got there to clinicals before me!! 10 year down the road we'll open a midwifery clinic together!

Karen and Me - together since the beginning along with a few others. We made it all the way through prereqs and then both years. Way to go!!

 It's mostly bittersweet that school is over but I'm glad to have the stress of weekly exams and crazy readings to be over. I  took the NCLEX about a month after graduation and felt like I totally failed it, but then of course you find out you passed. Crazy. It's kinda like when you have a birthday and don't really feel a year older, even though you are. I'm totally a fully licensed RN now but don't feel anymore qualified than I did the last day of clinicals! I'm not even looking for a job since this baby is coming any day now, so it feels surreal.  Unfortunately, quite a few of my classmates are struggling to find anything so in some ways I'm really glad I'm not looking. For now, I'll apply all those things I learned to keeping my family healthy and hopefully happy until I start to go stir crazy again and feel the need to look for something to do. At least I now have a great option!!!