Classes Start Tomorrow!

Tomorrow will be my first day of nursing classes. I will be wearing a uniform once a week (to clinicals) and I'm ironing on my arm patches and hemming my pants today. I could have done it weeks ago, but where's the fun in that?

I had a dream about my first day of clinicals. I've had dreams of the sort plenty in the past - missing class, not knowing what to do, etc. This time I couldn't remember my instructor's name, and we ended up in a dimly lit room of two drunks who were throwing up all over the walls and throwing their (filthy!) diapers toward me. I asked my instructor what to use to wipe down the walls and she said "Oh, use paper towels I guess."

Hilarious (kind of).

I bought my books. We were required to buy a package of books that come in e-book form, with a hard-copy option. It was only about $100 more for the hard copies, and I like paper, so I got them. It came to $706 with shipping. I have one other book to buy for a non-nursing class (nutrition), and would have had to buy a developmental psych book, which, presumably, would have brought my total for books up above $800. Yikes. I have to remind myself that all of this is towards a purpose. The other day I realized that when I'm done with the next two years I'll have a college degree and be able to become an RN. That's pretty crazy. Sometimes I just get lost in the process, and think my job is just to make it through. I'm actually getting something out of it!

I am amazed at how much I have learned and will be learning. It seems impossible that I could be a nurse. It is so complicated, and there are so many things a nurse needs to know and be able to do. How will I learn in just two years how to do it? I suspect that I will not come out a nurse, I will come out as someone ready to learn from the job how to do the job. Of course, I will know things, but I don't think I'll be a nurse yet. Maybe I'm wrong, though. I guess I'll find out!

So...after tomorrow, four more months to the semester and then summer. Four months seems like such a short time! Aftasie is already 6 and a half months. Everything is going so fast.