Good Things, for a change.

The lovely woman who taught my mental health class last semester filled me in on a practice that is supposed to relieve stress and anxiety and help to focus on gratitude and positive thinking.  Basically, every single night, the last thing before you go to bed, you're supposed to write down three good things that happened/came from that day, it doesn't have to be long, just a sentence (but these will be a bit longer).  So here are a few good things from this week:

My friend Kristen and I had the privilege and honor of spending a lovely afternoon with a former Dean of Duke's School of Nursing.  She is 83 and had a stroke about 6 weeks ago, but she is still sharp as a tack and even though we had a mission to help her with a few specific things, it ended up being a really wonderful experience.  So much so that we're going back again next week.  She is a major force in the nursing world, not just at Duke but around the world, and I don't think many students get the opportunity to know her and spend time with her.  The American Academy of Nursing named her a "Living Legend."  I feel pretty lucky to have been specifically asked to spend some time with her.  

One of my most favorite professors has asked me specifically to work with her on some research she's doing, which is a huge, huge honor.  She is a brilliant, incredible woman, and I feel really lucky that I developed such an awesome relationship with her last semester and it has continued into this semester.  I saw her a few days ago and she gave me the best pep talk.  I know she is going to be a mentor and a friend for a long, long time. 

I got to spend time last Saturday volunteering with another of my favorite professors at the Special Olympics Powerlifting competition.  First of all, who knew Special Olympics HAD a Powerlifting competition????  It was incredible.  And a huge inspiration, as always.  As an added bonus, I got to spend the afternoon getting to know this awesome woman better, and as a real person outside of school--she is HILARIOUS and SO encouraging, with the BEST advice--and I got to hang out with an alumna of our program who is also pretty incredible.  It was a fantastic day.

I have been RIDICULOUSLY productive this week.  It took a minor miracle to get everything accomplished this week, but I managed it.  Now onto the next!

Three good things of today:

I got great comments on a presentation I gave today.

I came home to the most lovely email tonight.  It made me cry, in the best way.

I got to watch a real life miracle today.  It was awesome.

So there are my three good things.  :)