What’s the biggest risk you’d like to take — but haven’t been able to?
I would love a side gig. Something creative and fun that earns some regular extra money and has nothing to do with being a nurse or me getting up at 0400. There are a few downsides to this. 1. I’m not creative. Not at all. 2. I don’t have time. 3. I do not have a mind for business. I
’m also a stickler for work life balance so in reality I don’t have time for this because there’s only so many hours in a day. Yet, I still fantasize about this. I still pray for this. Maybe the universe just hasn’t put it into fruition for me yet but I remain hopeful something will present itself.
These two things are relative. I am working on the second thing this year that has brought me outside of my comfort zone.
The first thing which I accomplished in the spring was a nationally recognized certification exam in my area of nursing. Studying for the exam was a brutal yet rewarding experience. It gave me sense of purpose that I long for when I see my early twenty something children glued to their laptops to complete assignments for their degrees.
Shortly before I took the certification exam my husband and I were given two free tickets to Brit Floyd, a Pink Floyd tribute band. The concert was amazing and the music resonated into my soul and into the last remaining brain cells I had left. The music saved me and a week later I passed the certification exam. I’ll never forget that concert.
The thing that I am currently working on which is the second thing that’s dragging me way outside of my comfort zone is a project for my hospital’s Clinical Advancement Program. My project is to create a teaching module for my department’s yearly competencies on an emergent anesthesia complication called Malignant Hyperthermia. I was inspired to do my project on this topic because it was one of the things I learned about for my exam and a topic that I found fascinating.
The project involves research, posters, creating scenarios, PowerPoint and writing. Going into to this, I felt rusty because I earned my BSN 12 years ago and haven’t done any projects or paper writing since then. I’ve realized though when I can turn my anxiety off and focus, I can actually conquer the tasks I didn’t think I could. Today I mastered putting my research into APA format for the first time in 12 years and my PowerPoint is coming along nicely. After our competencies are over with in early November I will have more research and writing to do. I know that I can do it though.
I’m getting there one step at a time and it feels good.
When was the first time you really felt like a grown up (if ever)?
I lived with my parents until I got married. I moved out of state with my husband two weeks after our wedding. It was a fourteen hour ride from the state that our parents lived in. My husband had moved after we graduated from college and I followed him after our wedding. I had quickly befriended an older women in our apartment building who had two young teenage boys. One day she asked me what I was making for dinner. It occurred to me that I was no longer living in my parents cozy three bedroom ranch house waiting for my mom to cook me dinner. I was now living in this dumpy apartment, I didn’t have a job yet and now I am responsible for cooking dinner. I didn’t even know how to cook! That was 27 years ago. I don’t remember what we had for dinner that night but I do know my transition into adulthood and married life was not a difficult one.
thatnursewrites 