Technology is SO cool.

Check this out!!  Technology is soooooo cool.  When we were having a little IV insertion refresher class, they showed us the latest technology they have--a vein finder!  It's this little device that shines a special light on your skin to help the health care folks find your veins so if you need an IV and you're one of those people who they call a "tough stick" because it's hard to find your veins, this makes it lots easier!  Even cooler is how it was developed--workers at concert venues noticed when they were using scanners to scan people's tickets, they could see their veins.  So they tweaked the technology a little, and voila!  SO COOL.

Vein finder--soooooo awesome!

And my three good things for the day:

1.  I watched Dr. Maya Angelou's memorial service this morning.  She is one of my heroes, and it was a beautiful tribute to a phenomenal woman, and a testament to the way we should all be living our lives.  Be the rainbow in someone else's cloud!

2.  It was a nice chill Saturday but I actually got some work done.  Hooray!

3.  I got an unexpected phone call from a friend today, and we had a lovely little chat.  Yay!

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.  :)

Disappointment, Exhaustion...and Encouragement.

Sooooooo....this turned into sort of a venting post....fair warning.

When I started nursing school, there were three tracks we could choose from: medical Spanish, research, and genetics/genomics.  I have always wanted to learn Spanish, so I decided to go for it.  As German and Sign Language are the only languages I've ever taken, I asked to be placed in the baby beginner Spanish class.  First semester it was fantastic.  Our teacher was fun and supportive and she definitely knew where we stood as BEGINNERS.  Second semester it all changed.  Several of the students who were in our class graduated, and suddenly our class was too small to run (they require six students to run a class and we had five), so they merged our class with the intermediate class.  Intermediate is a bit of a misnomer, though, as most of those students have taken at least 5+ years of Spanish, and there were at least twice as many of them.  (The advanced class is full of fluent speakers, so intermediate is really advanced, just not fluent.)  Our teacher was still the same wonderful woman, but now she taught the entire class in Spanish.  Rapid-fire Spanish with a thick Chilean accent.  I usually do a pretty good job of understanding Spanish, but as one of only two students who had never taken Spanish before this, I was drowning.

I've never been a quitter, so I desperately tried to stick it out, growing more and more frustrated each week as the semester wore on.  After several weeks in a row of spending the entire 90 minute class utterly lost and leaving in tears, I knew it was time to do something about it.  After a long, crazy, drawn-out process, I was finally able to switch tracks (which they told us from the beginning would be very difficult once we started the program).  My dear friend, Nick, who is still in Spanish, assures me I made the right decision.  (He says I would be miserable in there this semester.)  Which brings us to today.

Switching tracks means that I am both behind and ahead in the program up to this point.  Ahead because my extra elective class is already finished since Spanish counts (yay!), and in fact, I will graduate with more credits than I need.  Behind because everyone else in the program took a class last semester that I did not take (the Spanish track folks take that class this semester).  Basically what that means is that I have more credits this semester than anyone else, and since it's our short semester, it's extra accelerated.  Yay.  :/  I knowingly did this to myself, but holy moly, I had no idea how intense it was going to be.  

Just this week, I had to write FIVE papers that each required a literature search.  If you've ever taken a college-level research class, you know that lit searches can be time-intensive and cumbersome.  These were no exception.  Seriously all I do right now is write papers.  It's totally crazy.  Thank goodness I have a fair amount of skill in writing papers, because otherwise this would be TROUBLE.  Everyone told us that last semester was the crazy hard one and our third semester would be a piece of cake, and super fun to boot.  They were LYING.  There is SO much work to do, it's out of control.  And exhausting.

The hardest part so far, though, has been the surprise and disappointment I've had with one class in particular.  Anyone who knows me knows I've ALWAYS loved babies.  Ever since I was a baby myself, I've loved babies.  I also had the privilege and honor of witnessing my sweet baby nephew's birth, and it was truly an incredible experience.  I thought I might be interested in being a maternity nurse/nurse midwife.  This semester is leading me to believe that is probably not my calling, which is highly disappointing.  My maternity class has actually been pretty interesting, although a ton of work.    It's the rest of the experience that's been hard, and the disappointment of it has been hard to get over.  I'm trying, though.  As my best friend pointed out to me the other night, loving BABIES doesn't have to mean loving working with their "hormonal, grumpy moms."  Haha.  Who knows, maybe someday in a different location I'll feel differently, but for now, unless the next few weeks picks up, I think it's getting crossed off the list.  Oh well.  Also I had the strange and uncomfortable experience of being bullied today--I am way too old for that kind of crap.  And that kind of stuff stays with me for way too long.  Darn that sensitive heart of mine.  :/  

Anyway (despite an actually pretty great morning), needless to say I came home pretty discouraged tonight after a very long day, only to find one of the most lovely and encouraging, supportive emails I've ever received in my inbox from one of my favorite professors.  It was unexpected and I will admit I cried...both times I read it.  And then I remembered that I AM cut out for this and I WILL make it through this and I DO really love it, even when it's hard.

And since my last couple posts have seemed rather overwhelmed and not overly positive, I will also tell you that I ran into another of my very favorite professors the other day, who I completely adore, and she also gave me the best pep talk.  I have had some really awesome things going on lately, and I just have to remember that through the haze of stress and never-ending work.  Both of these incredible mentors of mine also reminded me that I only have to make it through a few more weeks of this craziness and then it's on to pediatrics, which I already know I'm going to love.  Can't wait.

Cheers to tomorrow being a new day, taking deep breaths, making the most out of hard situations, and remembering all the time I love this beautiful place in life I'm in right now.

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.

#Nursingschool

Well, hello!! I'm sure no one reads this anymore since I have effectively dropped off the face of the earth, but since I'm trapped on a plane with wifi for another hour or so, I thought I'd actually write a quick post.

I just finished the toughest academic semester of my life. No joke, this is degree #4, and even when I did my Masters degree, when I was doing a 2 - 2 1/2 year program in a year and working three jobs, I've never worked so hard or been so busy in my life. I've said it before and I'll say it again--when they said this was an accelerated program, they weren't messing around!!! And it's Duke, which means it's super academically rigorous on top of being fast. But want to know a secret? I LOVE it.

To give you an idea of what my schedule has been like the last few months, here's an average week for you:

Mondays were my clinical days, so I left my house at 6 AM, worked 13 hours at the hospital, and made it home about 8. Tuesdays when I didn't have random class obligations, my study partner and I would meet at school around 8ish, study until our review session at 4, go to a review, go to our a Cappella choir rehearsal, and head home around 6:30. If we had a test that week (which was the case most weeks), we'd grab dinner, let our dogs out, and meet back for a few more hours of studying. Wednesday was another all day study day. Thursdays we had class from 8-4:30. If we had Friday exams, it was back to studying after dinner. Fridays we had class from 8-2:30. Depending on the week, Friday afternoons were more studying, random paperwork, errands, grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, etc. Then Saturdays and Sundays were usually all day study days. Somewhere in there I also tutored a student behind me and took on a couple leadership positions in different organizations. Insane!!

Since I started the program, they've been warning us that second semester was the hardest, we just needed to survive it and pass, and don't worry about grades. Well, I guess my hard work paid off, because I got a 4.0!!!! I promise I've never worked so hard for anything in my life!! Totally worth it. My professors are incredible and I learned SO much this semester. It was stressful and exhausting and totally fantastic. We all are still totally blown away by how much we know that we didn't know eight months ago. Unbelievable.

Anyway, if you haven't heard from me or I've taken forever to respond to your emails or I've just been a crappy friend in general, that's why. I wish I could promise that it will get better, but I have an insane, 18-credit, 2 clinical summer ahead, followed up with a 16-day clinical rotation in Africa!! So, know that I'm always thinking of you all, and I'm so grateful for your support and love, even if I've been MIA. I'm halfway done!! Next week I start helping deliver babies... :) Can't wait!

Cheers to a wonderful summer, everyone, and if you're not afraid of the humidity and want to check out beautiful North Carolina, my spare room is always open!

Loves!

Jen

Greetings from North Carolina!! :)

Hello, lovely friends and family members!

Some of you may have seen this in a mass email, but I thought I'd post it here, too (with minor edits), in case I'm missing any one's email address.  A number of people have been asking if I'm alive and where I live and other assorted questions, and since time is at a premium these days, I thought I'd just get the info out in one fell swoop.  I also think I have old emails for a bunch of people, so if you have a better email to reach you, please let me know.  :)  And I am sure I missed people, so you can feel free to pass this along if there's someone you think would want to hear from me.  :)

So, greetings from North Cackalacky..ahem...North Carolina!

The South is lovely this time of year, especially if you love 90+ degree temps and 80%+ humidity!  Haha, don't worry, the giant bugs make up for any kind of less than desirable weather.  Kidding, kidding.  North Carolina is GREAT!  The only totally scary bug I've seen is a house centipede (dare you to google it!) in my kitchen.  Otherwise, thanks to extermination on my second day of orientation, my puppy Allee and I are thankfully so far the only ones who live in my apartment.  And with the exception of a few hot and humid days, the weather has been surprisingly mild and much like a lovely Pacific Northwest summer since I arrived.

Despite a bit of a rocky start with my living situation, I am now happily getting settled in my lovely TWO bedroom townhouse apartment (did you notice I said TWO bedrooms?  And I didn't mention a roommate?  That's right, friends, I have a place for you to stay, so you should all start planning your trips to North Carolina now!).  Allee has made a million friends with all the kiddos who live in the neighborhood, and they come over frequently to ask if she can come out and play.  She's doing better than I am in that arena, because they couldn't care less if I can come out and play!  ;)  Which is good, because I am way too busy for that anyway.  

Speaking of busy, school is off to a lightening speed start.  Holy moly, they aren't messing around with this accelerated program business.  We are almost finished with the third week of classes and we already had our first pathophysiology test on Tuesday (which I survived and did NOT fail, thank you very much!) and our next test is coming up on Monday.  But here's the craziest thing--I go to DUKE, you guys!!!  Seriously, I still can't quite believe it.  But as I spend all my time in basically two buildings on campus, plus the hospital, it might take awhile to sink in.  The faculty are INCREDIBLE.  They are some of the kindest, most brilliant people I have ever met, and even though my Gonzaga friends will never believe it, the vibe at Duke is much more Gonzaga-like than I ever could have imagined.  Everyone is incredibly supportive and the faculty are like cheerleaders in their enthusiasm and desire for us to succeed.  It's awesome.  I am surrounded by brilliant and talented people all day every day, which is both amazing and exciting...and sometimes slightly exhausting (but in a good way).  My cohort is made of people from literally all over the country and all over the world (no joke, China, Tanzania, Jamaica, Ethiopia...just to name a few), all ages and shapes and sizes and colors and ethnicities...it's really exciting.  I love being surrounded by this much diversity!  And my new bit of excitement is that there is an a cappella group at the nursing school and I am TOTALLY joining it and I can't wait.  :)

Anyway, I really have to get back to studying, so I will wrap this up, but just wanted to say hi, and thank you so, so, soooooo much for all your amazing love and support.  My phone number is staying the same as always, and in case any of you are inclined to drop me a line or send me some love (which I would NEVER say no to, especially since I have once again joined the ranks of poor, starving college student) and want my address, let me know (I never turn down a good care package).

Please stay in touch, and feel free to drop me a line or give me a call anytime!  Love you guys and miss you all!  And always remember...the BEST is yet to come!

Loves!

Jen

I'm Baaaaa-aaaaaack!

I know, I know, I haven't posted in forever.  My life went BANANAS these last few months, so hopefully ya'll can forgive me.  :)  (See, I said "ya'll"--I'm catching on to this North Carolina thing!)

My last few months were seriously really crazy.  I had to finish up my last prereq--Intro to Sociology.  Okay, so I know a lot of friends who have been sociology majors who are brilliant and amazing people who worked hard to get through difficult soc classes, but I have to be honest--this was the easiest class I've ever taken in my whole life.  I literally did less than no work for it--and I wrote like three papers, so what does that tell you?  It was a little bit time consuming but a piece of cake, and I easily slid by with an A.  Sweet.

The pre-registration requirements for Duke were CRAZY!!  We had SOOOOOO many hoops to jump through before we could even register for classes that it was like a full-time job all by itself.  Crazy.  Drug testing, background checking, fingerprint taking, shot getting, paperwork filling...you can't even believe how many steps there were!  But I must have gotten through it, because here I sit in North Carolina!

So my last few months in Portland were filled with lots of work, preparations, hanging out with my beautiful sister and this darling kiddo:

Ohhhhhh, how I love my sweet nephew!

and just getting ready to head off on my new adventure.

My last few weeks of work were pretty rough...my supervisor basically stopped talking to me after I gave my notice, and just in general things happened that made my life pretty hard, but the good news was that it was great confirmation I made the right decision.  And my boss and a few of my coworkers were overwhelmingly supportive (Jordan!  Lucy!  Gail!) and wonderful, so that mostly made up for the rest of the crap.  Plus my school was INCREDIBLE!  They were really the most supportive people I could have asked for in this whole thing.  My principal even had me come up at the end-of-the-year faculty/staff brunch, said a whole bunch of incredibly kind and wonderful things about me, told me how much they would miss me, and announced to everyone that I would be headed to Duke.  It was hilarious--you could hear an audible gasp, then everyone started clapping.  They are seriously the BEST.  I am going to miss them like crazy.  The Vice Principal (who has become a dear friend), Cyndi, literally cried when I said goodbye.  I have been incredible lucky to work with some truly wonderful people there over the last few years.

So two weeks after giving my notice, my sister and brother-in-law and my mom and I packed up all my stuff, and my mom and Allee and I set out on this epic cross-country road trip.  Literally over 3,000 miles of craziness.  It was actually pretty great, and included a lovely afternoon with a bunch of my best girlfriends from high school (Audri! Val! Amber! Renee!  Love you girls!), a couple days at home with a great day on my parents' boat at Flaming Gorge, snuggles with my darling goddaughter in Denver and late night visits with my bestie, Janna, a loooooooooong day across Kansas and Missouri (holy humidity and heat, Batman!), my first introduction to the hum of the cicadas, a stop at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, lunch with one of my favorite Gonzaga lovelies, Colleen, somewhere in Tennessee, a gorgeous drive through Great Smoky Mountains National Park and a foggy drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway, and finally we arrived in Durham.  We took a bunch of photos for my dear friend Aaron's wife, Liz, who is fighting breast cancer, with her "Team Liz" logo sign along the way, which made for some quick, fun stops.  I wish we'd had time to stop and do a few more things, but we had to meet my stuff which was supposed to be arriving in Durham ahead of us.

Once we got here it was a little bit of an adventure.  It turned out my stuff was not actually going to make it to Durham for a few more days (UGH!), the apartment I had reserved was NOT what they said it was and was actually pretty scary, and my mom and I had to figure out a way to track down her CPAP machine, which my dad had mailed since she forgot it in Utah (fun, right?).  We also had to find another place for me to live with zero notice because I got a pretty skeevy feeling about the first place and refused to sign a lease on a place I didn't feel safe.  So it was an exhausting and stressful few hours trying to sort that all out, but it worked out in the end.  Luckily I had thought ahead enough to pack my air mattress and pump in my car instead of in the moving pods, so we actually had a place to sleep, and we literally camped in my apartment for about four days while we waited for my stuff to arrive.  It was made even better because the air conditioner didn't work and the North Carolina summer was in fullllllll swing.  Luckily that got sorted out eventually so we didn't just melt into humidity puddles.

Anyway, there's the story of how I made it out of Portland, across the USA, and landed in Durham, NC.  Yippee!