One Day at a Time

This weekend it hit me that I am far, far away from home.  That doesn't happen often since I'm pretty used to being away from home, but the East Coast is far away and in a totally different time zone than most people I know.  I guess by "home," I don't even really mean a particular place, I just mean everyone I know and love is far away.  While everyone was posting photos of their cute families and barbecues and all the fun things they were doing, I was hanging out at my house being overwhelmed by the crazy workload I have this summer and thinking about how I really SHOULD be writing a paper of some sort.  It also just hit me that my sweet puppy really does live in Utah for awhile.  She is at Doggy Disneyland (aka, my folks' house) for the summer since I'll be headed to Africa in August; plus, with two long clinical days and two long class days every week, it was just a lot to ask of her to be crated for that many hours, so she's living the high life in Utah.  She's loving it, but I'm not such a fan.  She's been my little buddy for almost five years now, and it's weird not having her around.  :(

Beginning new semesters always overwhelms me a little.  Okay, maybe a lot.  I think it's because we spend the first week or so going through syllabi and being told in depth about every assignment we will have to do over the next 11 weeks.  The ten exams, many, many quizzes, projects, discussion board posts, and the gajillion papers I have to write hit me all at once and I'm just knocked for a loop for a minute.  I think it's also the moment when I realize how much I truly do NOT know yet and there's a finite amount of time in which it all must be crammed in my head and hope it stays there.  It's kind of hilarious, because last semester was the semester that everyone warned us about and I did just fine--unlike most people, I LOVED it--but I remember having this overwhelmed feeling at the beginning of January, too.  This, too, shall pass.  

Okay, pity party over.  Tomorrow is a new day and I have big plans to get lots done.  I just want to be clear--I LOVE North Carolina.  I love being a student, I love nursing, I love pursuing this new career in health care, I love the people I get to interact with on a regular basis, and I am shocked every day by how much I LOVE Duke.  I feel like North Carolina is "home" more than I ever felt Portland was "home."  I miss my friends and family like CRAZY, but otherwise North Carolina is a fantastic place for me to be (so if ya'll could just move here, it would be perfect).  I couldn't possibly have made a better decision for myself.  I'm already over halfway finished with this program and thinking about what's next...isn't that wild?  Time flies when you're having fun.  :)

Anyway, a lot of the new(er) cohort has been asking me how to survive THEIR second semester, and I just keep telling them to take it one day at a time, one week at time.  Time to start following my own advice.

One day at a time.