I'm Moving On...

Wow. I'm a college graduate! I did it! No more classes, finals, lectures, assignments, portfolios, clinical logs, etc! I almost can't believe it!! I graduated on Friday, May 15 after having my pinning ceremony for becoming a nurse that morning. The pinning ceremony was great and I felt so proud to have made it and "beat" nursing school! My favorite professor spoke (even though it as the same speech as last year, it was still nice I guess) and one of our classmates, Joe, gave an awesome speech! I walked at graduation at 1:30 in JQH Arena in my cap and gown with my Honors College sash and Magna Cum Laude cords. A bunch of my family and close friends were able to come and celebrate with me, including Mom, Dad, Nate, Papa, Uncle Ray, Aunt Sharah, Staci, Aunt Joyce & Uncle Paul (dad's side), close family friends Kyle & Debbie, and Brooke. Denise, Jon & Ashley Spalding, and Derylin & Maddi Dobyns were also able to come for some of the festivities. I have been soooooo incredibly blessed in my life to have so many people that have encouraged me, loved me, prayed for me, and cheered me on for my entire life! All of these people have helped me to survive the difficult years of college and I don't know that I would have been able to do it without them behind me.

My college days are over...for a while at least, and now I'm moving on to start my career as a professional nurse!! I'm so ready to get started!
So on Saturday, early in the morning we all left to go up to Maryville. After unloading everything, my dad, uncle, aunt, cousin, and myself all went to Mozingo Lake to go golfing. Now, this was my aunt, cousin, and I's first time golfing (the real kind with a bagillion big clubs and fairways, greens, little flags in the holes...and ponds and sandbars). Let's just say I am not going to be taking this up as my next project...I kinda stunk. I hit the ball pretty good several times and it looked really pretty, but other times I wacked at it and it went about 3 feet...or I hit it in the sandbars over and over again...and perhaps I may have hit a couple into the ponds on the course. It's okay though, it was a good time watching my dad and uncle try and be "pro's". That night was my brother, Nathan's graduation reception. I got to see a bunch of folks from my church, old school teachers, and others from the Ville which was nice. I really love the people in Maryville and I will definitely be coming home to see my family and all of them. They have really loving hearts and so many of them have helped to raise me a little bit, especially some of the old couples from church that were good friends with my grandparents...they really hold a special place in my heart! They treat me just like one of their own grandkids which has really helped me to deal with my grandpa's death and grandma's condition. My parents also have so many friends that are like second and third and fourth sets of parents to me! I am just so very blessed to have so many wonderful people that care about me!

Sunday was church and then Nate's graduation!!!! I still can't believe that my little brother is going to be a college student!!! Aaah! Afterwards, my aunt, uncle, and cousin left to go back home and we all got to hang out with Papa a little longer which was great! I drove Papa back down with me the following Wednesday when I had to come down to do stuff for my job and we met my aunt in Joplin for Papa to continue on with her. I love my Papa so much, so it was a great visit!

Well, I know I'm a little late, but hopefully I'll get off my lazy butt and get to writing a blog soon about my work experiences!!

Happy Nurse's Day!!!!

Today is National Nurse's Day and it's Nurses week from today (the 6th) through the 15th. Why you ask is Nurse's week starting in the middle of the week?? Well, I wondered that myself so I did some looking online and found that Nurse's week always starts May 6th, on National Nurse's Day, no matter what day of the week it is, and goes until the 15th which is Florence Nightingale's birthday. So there's your trivia for the day! I was very happy it was Nurse's Day because Kim brought me some Dove chocolate, and the nurse at the school shared her chocolate with us too! Chocolate always makes the day better!!

Today I had my last internship with the LINK clinic! Overall, I didn't feel like I was doing a whole lot to gain a better experience at being a nurse, but I liked working with Kim, the Nurse Practitioner, and the kids at the schools. I also liked working with this clinic because I can see that it is so needed for the low-income population in Springfield. One thing that bothered me was the fact that so many of these kids come from terrible home situations and are under such an enormous amount of stress that they shouldn't have to deal with. It broke my heart to hear these kids talk about their parents/grandparents/foster parents not having enough money to support them. I don't think I had any realization of my family's financial situation when I was in elementary school, but so many of these kids know the hardships their families are going through and they feel some responsibility for that. I was so saddened to see and hear about the children who were abandoned by their parents to be raised by grandparents or friends. But some of the parents made me really hopeful about this population, because you could see that some of the parents were really concerned about their children and would do whatever they could to help them get better. I know that as a nurse, I will be able to make a difference in all these children's lives. I will be able to help them when they're sick and try and comfort them when their sad, and give them a voice. I really want to help kids, I always have, and this experience made me see that I can do that in a variety of ways and in a variety of settings.

I made my first large purchase today as a nearly college graduate! I bought some nice new furniture for my apartment!! It's a tan colored microsuede and it's a couch, loveseat, and recliner set! Ooooooh! Pictures will come eventually once we get them moved in at the beginning of June.

Also, I got some FREE KFC for dinner tonight courtesy of Oprah!! I guess she made some announcement on her show yesterday and there's coupons online for a free KFC 2-piece grilled chicken dinner with 2 sides and a biscuit! After a lot of trials, we eventually got our four coupons and Allison, Rachel, Jered, and I went to go get our tasty meals. Guess a lot of other people had the same idea we did, cause the drive thru was about to circle the building and the line inside was just out the door!! Luckily it went pretty fast and we got our food and headed out. It was pretty good, not gonna lie, but unfortunately you can only print out the coupons today until midnight and you're supposed to only print out four per computer...but I didn't even get that far. We'll see, maybe I'll still have more luck tonight.