Lessons Learned

I learned a lot this week. I started a couple IV's, I learned different techniques about patient interactionm, I studied more medical terminology and abbreviations than I care to regurgitate at the moment. That last part was just for WORK. I believe, however, that the most important lesson I learned is that there are no guarantees in life. Yes, I know. This is not an old lesson for me, but we often forget about this golden rule and will take it for granted until the realization hits you like a freight train.

About the only thing were are given in life are opportunities. What we do with those opportunities will define our success or our failure. There is no whining about failure. The saying goes "if you fail to prepare, then you prepare to fail." This is true with just about everything we are. It is more apparent in Nursing school. A lot of you wonder why I am absent at times, maybe not myself. When I made the decision to pursue Nursing as a career, I thought I was going to die, in a very literal sense. I might have cancer, I might not, your liver is failing, oh wait, no it isn't. You have a mass on your spleen and your kidney....and your newly diabetic. At this stage in my life I had not accomplished really anything. "But you have 3 beautiful kids." Sure...but what legacy would I leave behind? How would I impact them in such a way that if I died, they would always remember me? The realization hit me that, among other things, I had the power to impact someone's life forever. I had been underestimating my capabilities for far too long. I could do this and it became clear that my illness was a way for God to really open my eyes to what the definition of potential really was.

Being accepted into the Nursing program, pretty much anywhere, is really the easy part. Sure you have to go through many trials to get there. However, you can't stop when you are accepted. When I got accepted, I wasn't elated. There was no "sigh of relief." I got nervous. I got butterflies. For me, failure wasn't an option. This was going to be the rest of my life. I had finally found what I wanted to do, and I was not going to let anyone take it away from me. My acceptance was my opportunity for something better, for something fulfilling. I had no intentions of thowing it away.

The short of this story is this. I have had 6 fellow nursing students lose this opportunity, for one reason or another, and it pains me to see this happen. How is it that, when given the chance to pursue a passion in life, that you let this opportunity slip through your fingers? We ALL have things going on in our life. We have distractions. We have issues that can cause an impedence in our progress. Aside from death, what else is there that will stop your from moving forward? I don't quite understand it. Was it once a priority and then it wasn't? It is a lot of work. It is more work than I have ever experienced, at least scholastically, in my entire life. To me, it makes it that much more important to stay on top of things. It's like every other project you might be working on. If you get behind, it then makes it that much harder to catch up and keep going. You are more apt to quit, and use life as an excuse. Life is what got you where you are. Life got you the opportunity. Don't make excuses. Own the outcome. You will sure as hell own the reward. It DOES work both ways. Failure is a direct result of preparation, as is success. Where do you stand? Life is going to happen whether you are ready or not. Don't miss out on the chance to make a difference because you forgot tomorrow was coming.

There are no guarantees...even for tomorrow.