Friday, May 18, 2012

Jumping Out of the Box!

Solo 32 mile bike ride while R was in Australia. A quick boost at the top of the Marin Headlands. Such a beautiful day!
I did it! I spoke with my boss last week and told him about going to nursing school. He knew something was up, so he wasn’t surprised yet he surprised me by being incredibly supportive and kind about the whole thing. My last full day is June 15 and I have signed up for a summer class that begins the following Monday. It will be challenging - class from 8 - 10:30 am everyday except Friday, along with part time work (until they find a replacement for me), volunteer work studying for the GRE and preparing for the new changes!

I have three volunteer positions lined up and another 2 waiting. I’ll be volunteering at Glide Health Services (a practice that serves the homeless and underserved populations of SF), the Jewish Home (assisted living) and SF General Hospital (a level 1 trauma hospital). Then I’ll try to get into the more “normal” hospital settings at CPMC and UCSF. It’s going to get crazy! But my hope is to volunteer at each place for 3-5 hours per week on top of my prereq courses. Life is going to get busy! I have to volunteer because when I apply to UCSF for the direct entry program (1 accelerated year to become a RN - for those of us without degrees in nursing and 2 years for the master’s to become a nurse practitioner) I have to apply to a specialty. Without volunteer experience and job shadowing, how am I to know what specialty to apply to? Also, in the fall or spring of next year, I think I’ll try to become a nurse’s assistant - a bit of a shitty job (pun intended) but will certainly gain valuable experience! Whew - that’s the huge life change in a nutsell.

Last weekend R and I went to a beautiful wedding in Yosemite. I’m an idiot and forgot to pack a camera, so no pictures - sorry! But it was really beautiful! What a fun weekend and I completely didn’t realize just how beautiful Hetch Hetchy was (the reservoir that supplies all of SF it’s drinking water) - I feel pretty naive, but it really blew me away. We didn’t have a lot of time to explore because of the wedding festivities, but nonetheless, it was amazing. R officiated the wedding and it was really funny to overhear other people say “wow, if that R doesn’t succeed in his day job, he could take this on as a second career!” Pretty funny. The bride was amazingly beautiful, the groom wonderfully sweet. The speeches were perfect and of course, there was the one awkwardly perfect drunken speech - the reason why weddings are always fun! :) Lots of dancing, lots of drinking and a terrible hangover - must have been a fantastic wedding!!!

There was *so much* pollen in Yosemite that it got the best of me. *sigh* I had to get on the allergy medicine bandwagon after sneezing my head off and just generally feeling like shit. But I feel like a normal person again. My allergies get so back that it’s just like having a cold and I get quite miserable. Hopefully I won’t have to take this drug for too long (you know how much I hate taking meds).

Other than that, I’ve been biking and been generally preoccupied with this life change.

One thing that’s made a huge impression on me throughout the past week and notifying my colleagues of my changes is everyone keeps saying “wow, I’m jealous” or “I wish I could do that.” I just want to give them a hug and say - “YES! YOU CAN!” I know this is slightly hypocritical of me given how long it took me to come to this conclusion, however, you can do anything you want to do. You really can. It might involve sacrifice and of course you need to find out if its’ worth it, but really, you can do anything. I think my parents have taught me this wonderful lesson. They currently sacrifice by paying a huge bill each month for emergency health insurance but they both are entrepreneurs after being successful in the banking and software industries. They just found that living in Seattle wasn’t working for them any longer and they moved into my grandparent’s home in rural Portland. It suits them and yes, its not perfect, but they’re happy. That’s what’s most important. Stop sacrificing happiness! If you’re from my generation, you should really spend 5 minutes and read this article - 9 Dangerous Things You Were Taught in School - and I love #5 “There is a very clear, single path to success.” I think that says it all.

I still am planning on a wellness series soon - so stay posted. I just need life to calm down a smidge so I can think about what I want to cover.

Open a bottle of sparkling for me!

2 comments:

  1. Very nice!! I already told you in an email but seriously! Way to go!!! Well done!!! You will suffer, yes, but it´s what you want and you will enjoy nonetheless.
    I wish I could have seen R officiating!!! :)
    We also need to get into biking more often, but weather in Paris is so random that we cannot really plan, since it might start raining without warning. Pretty nasty!
    Hugs!!!!

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    1. Thanks Toni! I greatly appreciate your support! Remember to wear your crash hat (helmet)! xox

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