Graduation!

Well, that was a long break from blogging!  Here are some photos from GRADUATION!!

Countdown...ya done!

My wonderful family :)

Some how I was first in line to walk in!

Off to celebrate!

What an amazing (and delicious) cake!

Hopefully this will be true very soon :)

Graduation was wonderful.  It was a beautiful ceremony.  I was so lucky to have my whole family there to support me.  After the graduation was a short reception.  It was overwhelming and chaotic, so I didn't get to see many friends.  It was all so surreal.  Maybe some of that had to do with the fact we had to be back at school the three days after graduation for NCLEX review.  After the reception, we went to a delicious dinner and Erin's parents joined us.  After dinner, Erin had that amazing cake brought out!  I was shocked! It was so cool!  One of my friends was also at the restaurant with her family, and they were all amazed at my cake as well (maybe even a bit jealous ;)  

Overall, graduation was wonderful.  It went by so quick.  I loved seeing my classmates all dressed up and meeting some of their family.  I wish it hadn't been so chaotic and we would have had more of a chance to talk.  I was so glad my family was there and got to meet some of my friends and professors.  I am one lucky lady to have had such a strong support system behind me for those 14 months.  My biggest supporter is my Erin.  She was amazing and I think I will need to spend at least the next 14 months supporting her :)  I have already promised her my first 14 months of pay checks WHEN I get my first nursing job!

I will update more on what I have been up to this past month...soon!

Graduation Tomorrow

Tomorrow is graduation!  How crazy is that!?  It still really doesn't feel real.  Maybe part of me is not letting myself fully comprehend that I am at the end because I do not yet have my final grade.  Fingers crossed I did actually pass this last semester!!

This weekend has been fun and busy.  My parents are in town, my mom is staying with Erin and me and my dad is down the street with my brother and soon to be sister-in-law.  Tomorrow, my dad is going to help me replace brake lights in my car and my mom and I are going to get a mani/pedi.  I am excited!  Today, I made my mom go with me to a few stores to find shoes to wear tomorrow.  I figured flip flops were not appropriate foot wear with my dress/graduation.  I am beyond picky about shoes, so we went all over!  Good thing my mom has so much patience and was willing to go store to store (and buy my shoes for me!)

I am feeling that nervous excitement.  I will be glad to see all my school friends tomorrow.  It will also be fun to see everyone all dressed up and to meet their families!  All the people that were behind the scenes as our #1 supporters :)  They all deserve this graduation celebration as much as all of us graduates!

Off to bed to try and get some good sleep.  My neck has started hurting again.  I have a feeling if it is from stress, I am screwed because I am not sure when I will be low stress again.  (NCLEX, applications, interviews, and a job...oh my!)

Countdown continues...

We are down to only hours people!  No more days left!!!!!!

Nursing School...Ya Done!

Nursing school is OVER!!!  

I finished my last class on Thursday evening.  Well, "class" was just standing around, having a few snacks and playing with my classmate's adorable 10 month old little baby.  The professor was causing me to panic with all this tips for jobs, interviews, using Linked In, and further education.  He more or less tells you like it is and sometimes I take that as way too overwhelming.  I would like someone to just tell me everything will be alright and fall into place.  That is what my Erin is for ;)

Anyways, I am done with classes and exams and projects and papers and care plans and clinical and my uniform and early morning alarms and packing my lunch...for now.  This weekend is all about relaxing and zero work on school stuff of studying.  My parents are flying in this evening and I am cooking three Indian dishes to have for dinner.  It is so great to be able to cook without school work looming over my head.  I will save that for next week.  This weekend is going to be hanging out with my family and celebrating my dad's 60th birthday and my upcoming sister's 29th birthday.  Tuesday is graduation (so I will steal the focus back to ME!) I plan to go with my mom to get our nails done at a place that does a mani/pedi for only $25 on Tuesdays...perfect!  After graduation on Tuesday, we will all go out to dinner, which I am really looking forward to.  We are trying a new restaurant by my school.  After dinner we will come home and I will be back at school bright and early and 8am (or is it 9am?) for the first day of a three day ATI test review.  This is all prep for the dreaded NCLEX.  Sigh.  At least it's only three days.  i hope to get a lot out of it.  After that review, I will give myself the weekend, then start my scheduled days of working out and devoting time to go through practice questions.  They recommend we do 3,000-5,000 questions before we sit for NCLEX.  Hooray!  What a great way to spend the rest of my summer!!  I will also have to start the scary process of applying to jobs.  Ahhhhhhhh!  Now I am actually going to have to be a nurse!  That terrifies me beyond belief.

I am not yet believing that I am actually done with school.  Probably because 1) I haven't gotten my final grades yet (so hopefully I passed).  2) I have a lot of work ahead of me with studying and applying for jobs. 3) it just doesn't seem real that I actually completed this 14 month nursing program!  It's bittersweet as I know I will miss seeing all my friends on a regular basis.   A few of my closest friends and I have already begun making plans to see each other :)  That makes me feel better.

Yesterday, on my first official day off from everything, Erin and I made the drive out near the Poconos to visit some of our friends.  We sat pool side sipping strawberry daiquiris and took a couple dips in the pool.  I got some really funky burn lines which I am hoping fade before graduation.  Then we headed to our friend's new hair salon where I got many inches chopped off my hair.  I LOVE it!  My hair had gotten ridiculously long.  After the salon, we went out to a delicious Italian dinner, which was lots of fun.  On our drive home, Erin and I almost hit a deer.  It was so scary, but thankfully we didn't hit the bastard.  He ran right out in front of us but luckily kept running.  Poor Erin screamed and was shaking bad after, but she held it together and got us home safe!  Whew!

Ok, must get back to work cooking.  I AM DONE WITH NURSING SCHOOL!  Maybe if I keep saying it I will start to believe it!

One More Day

Tomorrow is my last day of nursing school.  I am going to just take a moment to let that sink in...

  

Nope, it still doesn't seem real!  Picture #2 is totally me...what is the lowest grade I can get on this exam tomorrow and STILL pass.  hahahaha You think I'm kidding!

Today, I have done my best at trying to keep myself busy with anything and everything BUT studying.  I briefly looked over some slides this am, but then I washed the sheets in the spare room, washed some extra pillows, went food shopping, cut up a huge watermelon, checked Facebook, played candy crush, ate lunch, had some iced coffee, took the dog out, organized my desk, I mean dining room table, and then decided to write this blog post!  I have been busy!  Oh, I also took about a 10 minute cat nap.  Time to buckle down and actually get some knowledge in my head for MY LAST NURSING SCHOOL EXAM!!!!

Our amazing trends professor switched our schedule so we have our class a whole two hours earlier in the afternoon, right after our first class (with said exam).  Then we have until 5pm to have our ethics class.  We are just meeting to have a party.  I plan to bake some cookies tonight to share with my class.  A group of us are also going to grab a drink between classes which should be a lot of fun!

Yesterday we had our big poster presentations.  They went fine, a lot less intense than I was expecting.  Then we had our trends class and we were done for the day!  Erin and I went out to a new place  (new to us) for dinner, which was nice.  I am realizing AGAIN how simply amazing my Erin is and has been through this whole school process.  I have been a douche at times, and Erin just puts up with me and keeps loving and supporting me.  She is so wonderful.  She may actually be more excited than me about the end of this program!  Right Erin?!

After school I went to look for a graduation dress.  The store I was in had no ac (I think I heard someone say it was broken) so I didn't last all that long.  I bought two dresses and need to get Erin's opinion.  Then I will either wear one of those, or go to one more store to find a dress and some shoes!

Alright, the time has come to study for this last exam.  I feel like I should be more excited...maybe it will kick in after the exam tomorrow.

T-6 days until graduation!  Oh, and I finally picked a place for dinner...and made a reservation.  I can't wait!!

My Last Week!

I am getting so close to being DONE!!  It's surreal and exciting and terrifying and stressful and bittersweet.

Today, I went to campus for what I thought would be maybe an hour or so to put together our poster for the big presentation tomorrow.  Well, four hours later, it was done!  Whew!  I guess I underestimated just a tad.  I should have realized how NOTHING for this project was easy or quick, so why would putting it all together be any different?!  Oh well, it's done and now we just have to present it tomorrow.  I believe all the posters will be on display and faculty and our peers will come around to evaluate and ask us questions.  We also have to dress up.  Awesome.  I love dressing up!  Especially since all my pants are super snug due to my lack of exercise and eating late and night and stress...that's a whole other blog post I may never write ;)

I think it is somewhat hitting me that the end is near.  I am 100000000% excited to be finishing this program (assuming I pass my exam on Thursday! oh and get a passing grade on the crap I turned in for an ethics paper)  I am feeling the stress of these last couple days of class/assignments/exam.  I am also terrified of the next step...applying for jobs, rejection, interviews and actually being a nurse.  I feel like I have been out of practice (aka the hospital actually taking care of patients) for too long!  The next time I am in a hospital will be for a job!  That is beyond terrifying!  The fear of failure rears its ugly head again.  I also have to just give in to the fact that I will be a nervous/anxious mess for years to come!  I hate always feeling this nervous, but I guess if I wasn't nervous, that would be worse?  Ok, moving on, I am stressing myself out more!

I am working on this CITI training and IRB training for this research project I am going to be apart of.  It is taking forever!  That is also stressing me out (shocker), I feel like i should have this training all done by now!  One thing at a time and just breathe.

One week to go!!!!!!

So Close to the End

So, somehow I survived last week.  I really didn't think I would actually finish that ethics paper.  Side note; it was hands down the worst paper I have ever written.  I am scared now I will get an email from my professor telling me it was total crap and I will have to rewrite it!  Fingers crossed that doesn't happen.

So, all I have left to do next week is meet with the Montana group to assemble our poster.  Tuesday we have poster presentations all morning.  Apparently we have to evaluate our peers and the professors will come to each poster and throw questions at us.  Should be a hoot!  Then I have my trends class where I will listen to more student presentations.  Wednesday...I have NOTHING!  Well, just studying for my last exam in this program.  This brings me to Thursday, last exam and poster presentation review followed by trends and then our last ethics class.  We may try to sneak away between classes to grab a beer!  Our ethics professor said we can have a party, he just HAS to have class meet.  I assume there will be zero teaching going on, which is fine by me!  I am going to try and bake something to share with the class :)

This weekend has been great do far!  Erin and I have the whole three days off together.  Last night we went to a movie under the stars put on by our neighborhood ( and had delicious grilled cheeses from a food truck).  We saw Moonstruck.  It was fun!  We hope to make this more of a weekly tradition for the rest of the summer.  Next time, we will pack a picnic dinner!  Today, we went to our fave restaurant in Philly, El Vez with some friends.  Now we are in a food coma and it feels amazing.  Tomorrow, we will head to Erin's niece's house for a BBQ with the family.  Should be fun and great weather!

I cannot believe how close I am to the end.  I need to keep focused and make sure I finish strong.  I can't wait until my family is here next weekend, we have so much to celebrate!!  Birthdays and graduation :)

Omg Two Weeks

Only two weeks left and I graduate!!!