My College Career

I wrote this Wednesday night, but then the server went down and I was not able to post till Friday.

Well it is finally here...I officially graduate from college on Saturday.  I passed my very last nursing school test today (a 180 question comprehensive NCLEX predictor).  Up until this afternoon when I saw that passing grade, I did not allow myself to get to excited about my upcoming graduation.  After the test, it really hit me that I am done with college.  Wow!  So much has happened in the last four years.  I find myself a little reminiscent as I think about my college career. I first started at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, NE.  Why you may ask would a Texas girl who eventually ended up in Arkansas make a side stop at Nebraska? They came to me and offered me a huge scholarship, so off I went to become a cornhusker.  I think these picture sum up my Nebraska experience.

Corn fields and football.  Don't get me wrong, I loved my year there.  I met wonderful people, did fun things, and learned that your hair can freeze when it's 0 degrees or below.  When I look back, I realize that despite the cold, constant snow, and homesickness, I had so much fun while I was there.  Then I got engaged to Ryan when I came and visited him over Spring Break, so I transferred to Arkansas.

We got married that August and I started at the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2008.  I changed my major from Biology/Pre-Med to Nursing.  I made wonderful friends that made me feel welcome in my new home and kept me busy when Ryan was gone constantly, away at school doing architecture studio work.

I learned to call the Hogs and finally understood Ryan's obsession with Bikes, Blues, and BBQ.

We climbed, we camped, we hiked, we canoed (not successfully) through the beautiful Ozark Mountains. 

All the while, I worked hard to finish my pre-requisites for nursing school and then applied at the end of my sophomore year.  I started nursing school in the fall of my junior year.  That first semester was crazy intense.  I do not think I have ever worked harder in my life.  My friends saw less and less of my as I fell deeper and deeper into stacks of nursing textbooks.  Christmas break provided a much needed break and we went to CO to ice climb with my family.  Then spring break saw us in Lake Tahoe snowboarding.  Both were super fun trips and provided much needed stress relief!

I don't think I could have been with a better group of girls than the ones in my nursing class.  Through our four long semesters together of studying endless nights, getting through long clinical hours, and even harder nursing classes, we have really gotten close.  There are some amazing girls in my class that I am proud to call friends. Fifty of us will graduate Saturday, ready to become real nurses.

The summer before my senior year was not the best.  Ryan was away in Mexico from May to August for architecture school.  I have never missed someone so much.  There would be weeks at a time when I was unable to talk with him because of bad or nonexistent internet connections.  He came home the day before our anniversary and I could not have been happier.  Then tragedy struck our family nine days later and our lives were turned upside down.  The fall semester was hard as we tried to pick up the pieces of our lives and get through our rigorous course work.  Spring semester got a little better, although I was really sick for the first two-three weeks of school.  We spent a wonderful Spring Break in Navarre, FL with my family.  

The semester passed by remarkably uneventful up until three weeks ago.  At the end of April, it rained for five days straight.  Our house flooded.  Fortunately I was home and I was able to get our rug and electronics out of harm's way.  We had three inches of running water flow through the back door to the front door for about two hours.  The parking lot behind us turned into a roaring river and there was about two feet of water up against my back door.  To top it all off, I had an interview that day, an hour after the flooding started.  I had a hard time even getting to the place because all the roads in Fayetteville were flooded.  By the time I got into the building, my suit was plastered to my body (despite my umbrella) and I had dropped my resume somewhere in the parking lot.  Not the best of first impressions.  

That Wednesday was when the tornadoes hit Alabama.  My aunt had talked with my grandparents that live in Huntsville that night and found out their roof was damaged but that they were okay.  Then tornado sirens went back off in the background and they lost connection.  The next day we read about the devastation that had occurred throughout the region.  Six tornadoes alone had gone through their county.  No one could get in touch with my grandparents.  My uncle called the police department and found out that no fatalities had been reported within city limits.  Power was down, as well as cell phone towers.  I waited all day to hear from them, antsy with worry.  No one could get through to them.  Finally, Friday morning, my uncle contacted me to let me know that they were okay.  All of this was going on right as Ryan and I were trying to finish projects, papers, and prepare for finals.

I look back at the past four years and I notice a trend.  Through the good and the bad times, Heavenly Father has been there watching out for me.  I know that would not have been possible for me to get through nursing school without Him.  Tests used to be a weakness for me in high school.  I was always the last one finished and I always had to struggle to get the grades that I wanted on them.  Nursing school is all about the tests.  Now, I get through tests pretty quickly and have passed all my standardized tests.  It might not seem like much, but passing some of my nursing tests were miracles to me.

 For the last seventeen years of my life, I have dedicated myself to school.  And now it is all over and I am starting a new chapter of my life.  The looming stress and pressure of nursing school is gone (most likely to be quickly replaced with something else).  Yes, graduate school will come, and I still have my NCLEX to pass before I become an official Registered Nurse.  But for today, I will be happy and be completely school related stress free!!!