If there is one person I can say I am doing this all for, it would be my grandmother Rendel. From the age of two weeks, my grandmother took me into her home and sheltered me when my parents neglected to do it themselves. In her rather old age, she took on the responsibility of a child so young as I and treated me as her own. Thinking back to the days where my grandmother would tell me how she came to rescue me from my parents always brought a tear to my eye. However, when I look at the overall picture, I am rather happy to have spent my childhood around such a strong, caring, independent woman.
As a child, my grandmother and her daughter, my aunt, were the only two parents in my life. My father had moved to America to pursue his dreams of becoming a contractor, and my mother wanted nothing to do with me, nonetheless. My grandmother, my guardian angel, so bravely stepped up and took me into her home with open arms, something I will forever be eternally grateful for. She worked as a Certified Registered Nursing Assistant in our small town, and even at a young age as my own, I could see the toll it took on her. She often came home tired and exhausted from the long shifts she had to work to provide for me. Even when her hands were aching and bruised from tending to her patients all day, she always found time to entertain me and mentor me in the kitchen while she cooked her delicious meals. When we both moved to America, I knew that I could conquer this new world with her by my side. My grandmother was nothing short of a hero, and she is the reason why I have also dedicated my future studies to Nursing.
When the Coronavirus Pandemic hit, my grandmother fell rather ill. When she called me frantic, stating that she couldn't breathe, I rushed over to her home, hoping and praying that she would be alright. When I got there, her face was drooped, and she was gasping for air on the Victorian-style couch in her dining room. I immediately rushed her over to the nearest hospital and called for the nurse to aide her. To see my grandmother rushed away from me in such a split second broke me. I stood there in the waiting room, hopeless and anticipating what was yet to come. In my head, I was replaying the last few moments, wondering what I could have done better in such a situation. I stood in the hospital, beating myself up because there was nothing I could have done to protect my grandmother from this untouchable enemy.
When my grandmother was officially diagnosed with Coronavirus, I felt like my whole world was falling apart. I was not able to see her, and those two weeks I spent quarantined felt as they would never end. At this moment, I realized how helpless I was. I could not tend to my sick grandmother, who had given up her own life to save mine, and for this, I was devastated. And so, I began researching. I looked up every remedy and researched this virus to aid my grandmother in some sort of way. To say this experience has awoken a passion in me is nothing short of the truth. I shall use this experience as a pave to my career in Nursing. To help even one person, where I failed to help my grandmother, would make this all worth it.
"What angels are to the sad, nurses are to the sick."- Amit Kalantri,
This sagacious quote reflects the profession effectively, as many of the job requirements and behaviors of nurses around their vulnerable patients, label them as earthly angels. Oftentimes, society juxtaposes the healthcare field, withdrawing from those deemed as burdened with too much, or treating the sick as lepers with decreased value. At most, the common man offers sympathy but rarely sacrifices the amount of time, strenuous labor and care given by the nurses they encounter. Despite societal apathy for the sick , a common saint-like quality in the healthcare field, specifically nursing, is fighting tooth and nail for the lasting positive impact on others; not only healing certain maladies in the health of patients, but incessantly offering them the respect, time and nurturing society tends to withhold. Those with debilitating conditions deserve a better quality of life regardless of critical conditions and those who care for them while connecting them with the outside are nothing short of heroes. To my admiration, this tenet is upheld in the healthcare field where I have had my fair share of selfless nurses to follow in the footsteps of. To me, the healthcare system is abundant with commendable nurses who spend most of their time taking care of those whom society deems impotent and helpless, while skillfully connecting patients to their doctors and reconnecting them with life outside of the hospital. This is done simply out of their own admirable strength, understanding, commitment, and care. Throughout my life, past and present, there has been a variety of health care professionals that have inspired me to take the same path. However the most impactful profession to me is nursing because of personal experiences with my sister Precious born prematurely, sister Miracle born with cleft lip and palate and my own mother, who is a nurse.
From a tender age, I noticed how the nurses were notably attentive and solicitous with my sisters and my mother as she went through such a vulnerable experience. As my mother recalls, the nurses were advocating for the life of my sister and communicating with her supportive and alleviating "patient teaching". I was distraught with Miracle's condition and began to cry but my parents consoled me. Finally the medical team gained admission to us and confidently reassured us her promising health. Remarkably, the nurses empathetically extended themselves with my mother, which reassured me in return. Within a span of 1 year, my sister had successful surgeries for her lips and palate with a promising future. Every visit to the hospital, there was a dependable nurse, advocating and communicating with my family in times of need. During the pandemic, I am aware of the importance of nurses due to my mother being a registered nurse. My mother is on the frontlines, sacrificing and working relentlessly to take care of the patients in her care. Her dedication and commitment to caring and advocating to her patients is a quality of admiration. I'd love to be a travelling professional nurse, due to the sense of duty I’ve always felt when seeing how the people in non-Western countries battle the pandemic and other worldly terrors. I see the world around me today; the way the people of India agonize, and the way that family back home struggle to fend off Covid-19 and keep themselves in this world. With all the unrelenting and unwavering pains of sickness in other people's lives, my dream to be a nurse and offer human connection and care, blazes itself in my mind like an ebullient forest fire.
