I cleaned houses to earn money. It was good money, flexible, and back breaking. I looked at my children one day and said, “We need a better plan. Mommy is going back to school.” Little did I know what journey I would begin with this simple statement. I was 34 years old and had last attended college in 1990, unsuccessfully. I had mountains of paperwork and forms that had to be filled out. I had transcripts in other cities that were 15 years old and what the heck was a FAFSA?
In May of 2005 I took my first class as a pre-nursing major at MTSU.
I soon added MLA format, TI83 plus calculators, and scantrons to the list of things I had no idea I would ever need and that would now be my best friends. I plowed through college algebra, statistics, and anatomy 1 and 2. I realized quickly that the 19 year olds sitting next to me in all my classes were invaluable. Learning to make friends with people who considered me the old lady in class was the best way to get notes if I had to miss class. Kids don’t stop getting sick just because Mommy has a big lecture that day. I had a list of grandparents, family, and friends on standby to grab a sick kid or pick someone up from dance class or taekwondo if I couldn’t make it. I lost count of the number of times I said, “Shhh, Mommy is studying.”
Many nights I cooked dinner while my family took turns reading flash cards to me and quizzing me for a test the next day. Surrounded by a mountain of books, notes, and index cards I finally broke down crying that there was no way I could do this. It’s too hard. I’ll never make it. My family gathered around me and held me up. Keep going.
That would be the first of many breakdowns and many tears. I remember sitting in my car crying and clutching my acceptance letter to the MTSU School of Nursing. They had no idea how many lives they had changed with that one letter.
Three years later and many clinical hours, tests, and study sessions later I am coming up on my graduation in December 2008. Choosing to be a nursing major meant I was lucky enough to learn from experience. While theory was taught in classroom settings to give us the proper background we needed, being able to perform skills hands on with actual patients was invaluable. There is no way to learn how to start an IV or insert a foley catheter without actual practice. Although I am nervous about my first job as a professional nurse, I know that the skills I learned from experiential learning have given me the foundation to begin my career with confidence.
