Update Part I

It's been forever and a day since I've blogged. I'm not sure I remember how to do this. Well to catch up a little.....

I graduated!

A week before graduation we had a dinner at Pizza Factory with our whole class and then afterward drove up the canyon to burn our scrubs. It was so fun! It was great to spend a night with all the people I had spent so much time with over the three years of nursing school, who I literally spilt blood, sweat, and tears with.  Burning our scrubs was the best part of the night!

Burning my scrubs.

My best friend. I couldn't have done it without her. I'm so glad that not only did BYU give me a degree it gave me a best friend for life. 

Kristen is a continual constant in my life. I'm so grateful for the incredible friendship and relationship that I have with her. I couldn't have done it without her.

Words can not even begin to describe how I feel about these two people. They are my best friends, my advisors, my confidants, and my rocks. I owe everything I have and everything I am to them. I love them with all my heart and am continually grateful for all they have done for me, all they do for me, and all they will continue to do for me. I couldn't have done it without them.

BYU College of Nursing Class of 2012. I love all these girls (and boys) so much.

A few weeks after graduation, I flew down to LA to spend the week with Laura and her family. It was a blast. I attempted to surf for the first time. I was scared, but I did it and it was actually really fun after I got over the fear of drowning or being eaten by a shark or being smashed by the real surfers. I boogie boarded for the first time. I had the best strawberry I have ever eaten in my life. I got an awesome $20 asian massage. I watched the whole second season of Downton Abbey with Laura and her sister. And I went to my first Dodger's game and ate my first Dodger Dog. It was the best week. 

For graduation my awesome parents sent me and my mom on a cruise to Alaska! It was the best thing ever. I loved every minute of it. Cruises are so fun. And Alaska is breath taking and spectacular. It was easily one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen! I had such a great time with my wonderful mom. We made some great memories that I will never forget! 

Well that's a long enough update for now. Stay tuned for part II.

Remember that time?

Remember that time my dream came true?

And I got into the nursing program at BYU.

Graduation is right around the corner. Today is my last day of classes. It's kind of absurd. I'm not sure how this happened. I remember starting the nursing program like it was yesterday and now I'm about to graduate with a Bachelor's of Science in Nursing!

Wow.

Remember that time my dream came true again?

And I got a job at Primary Children's Medical Center!

I've wanted to work at Primary's since before I started nursing school. I had the awesome opportunity to do my capstone on the pediatric intensive care unit at Primary's. And I was made aware very quickly how much I love pediatric nursing and how badly I really did want to work at Primary's. There is just something about that place. I absolutely love it up there!

I applied for a job in the Float Pool at Primary's a few weeks ago. I wanted this job so bad. It's perfect for me. Float Pool nurses work on every unit in the hospital; I love the change in that.

And last week I got a call telling me they wanted to offer me the job!! I freaked out.

I can hardly believe it's actually real. I have to remind myself all the time that I actually got a job. And a job that I LOVE. MY DREAM JOB!

I'm so incredibly blessed. Only three people in my class of sixty have jobs. The job market is just so difficult right now for nurses. And I got my dream job! It's just incredible to me and unbelievable.

Remember that time my dream came true?

Yeah. That was pretty cool.

Wrong

Since June 3rd was the last time I blogged I figured it was about time to write again. I'm not sure why I stopped blogging, but here I am more than six months later blogging.

Six months is a long time and yet I can't think of what to blog about it. I'm sure I had great thoughts and ideas in those six months that would make great posts.

Here's something I've been thinking about. In May it will mark five years since my graduation from high school. Five years. Half a decade. I think about where I was then and where I am now. And I'm stinkin' proud of myself. I was so naive. Man, I thought I was the bees knees. Man, was I wrong. I thought a lot of things that were wrong.

I thought I would be friends with my friends in high school forever. I remember Dr. Fullmer telling us that we probably wouldn't be friends with the friends we had then after high school and for some us we would never see each other again. And I remember thinking you're wrong, Dr. Fullmer, I will be friends with these people forever! It turns out I was wrong. Now I find myself avoiding people I knew in high school. Not because I don't want to talk to them or see them, but because I'm a different person now than I was then. A whole different person. And it's okay that I'm not friends with my friends from high school. In fact, it's good in a way.

I thought I would be married maybe with a baby by the time my five year reunion came around. A lot, probably most, of the people I know from high school are married with kids. And most of them have blogs where they record their love for their husbands and children. They write about how cute their newborns smile is or how incredible their husband is. They may write about how fast their children are growing, their first word, their first step. After high school you're expected to go to college, get married, and start a family. Somehow being married and having kids has became a stigma of success. Of course I want those things and I look forward with anticipation to blogging about my husband and kids. But I don't base how successful I feel about my life on that.

I thought a lot more things that were wrong that don't need to be hashed out here. My point is that even though where I thought I would be or where society thinks I need to be I am proud of myself. And I'm grateful I'm here and not there. Right now I'm content. I'm successful. I'm proud of myself. I'm glad I was wrong. I'm glad I'm a whole different person now. Being wrong turned out to be right.

Will I go to my five year reunion like I always said I would? Probably not. Just another thing I was wrong about.

Change

A lot can change in a month and a half. It was April 15 when I last posted.

I finished the semester. With the best GPA I've ever had at BYU. Thank you!

I celebrated Kristen's graduation.

I didn't go to Ghana.

I had a birthday.

But the thing that changed the most in the past month and a half is that I lost someone I love. It was very hard, but I treasure those hard times I had. Because it was so hard and is now so personal I'm not sure if I'm ready or even if I will put it on the world wide web.

"In each case their passing has brought sorrow over the separation of friends. But in every case there have also been comfort and reassurance and certainty that death, though bitter to observe, is not the end, but is, rather, only another graduation from which we go on to a better life."

Gordon B. Hinckley

Too Bad

Today I held a boy's hand.

He was the most adorable boy.

And he smiled the whole time.

Too bad he was sick.

Too bad it was at work.

Too bad he was only 12 months old.

But boy was he cute!

Too bad he's not 20 years older.

Therapy

Playlists. I love making playlists. You know on itunes? It's the best.

I think it's become a type of therapy for me. And then I listen to the playlist for a few weeks over and over and over again.

It's therapeutic.

What's your therapy?

I'm Not Getting Sick

So I've been fighting getting sick since Sunday.

Today it got bad enough that I thought I might have the flu. I drove out to work and had them do a flu test. That nasal swab is awful!

Anyway, no flu! Hooray!

But I'm determined to not be sick. I kept telling myself I'm healthy, I'm healthy, I'm healthy, I'm healthy.

I don't think it's working.....