I practice self-care by checking out mentally and watching outrageous reality television. I love escaping for an hour and letting my mind get consumed with reality stars' petty issues. It rests my mind and helps me be more productive when returning to the tasks at hand. In addition, mental breaks are essential to help reset my cognitive function to apply myself better to my work and home life.

Having a growth mindset helps me keep a positive mindset because it is important for me to remember that even though I struggle or have setbacks, I will grow from my mistakes. Personal growth is the earmark of being a positive, productive adult. Staying stagnant in life leads to bitterness and regrets. I choose to always learn and explore so I can be a well-rounded, informed human that is happy, healthy and productive.

Patience is important to be because sometimes I need to remember that each person does things are their own pace. Whether it be my daughter putting on shoes, walking behind an older person or working my wat through school. Patience is key to innerpeace and happiness.

My most favorite guilty pleasure in life is trash television. I love watching Bravo reality shows and getting caught up in the lives and lifestyles of the rich and famous. I love that I can take a mini-mental break from my day and focus on the extravagant antics of people I will never know. It is nice not to think about work, school, and even the current events affecting us while enjoying a few moments to myself. My next pleasure is teaching my preschooler games that I played as a child. It is fascinating watching her learn a new skill or seeing the bulb go off in her head when she makes the connection between cause and effect and how that changes the strategy of her gameplay. Also, I get amused when she wins a game organically, for the first time. Seeing the excitement of winning and her pride from small but well-earned victories makes my heart happy.

I encourage the people around me by supporting their creativity, passions, and dreams. It is crucial to encourage children and youth to be active and creative. Encouragement sets them up for a lifelong love of the arts and sports. Their minds are more elastic to different ideas, people, and cultures. Encouraging new experiences helps make children better, well-rounded adults who are more self-assured and confident. Furthermore, encouraging youth to become the best versions of themselves sets them up for success by helping them gain confidence in their skills and abilities. It encourages new experiences and thinking outside of the box. Encouragement of my peers is essential also. Life is tough. Mental health is physical health. Everyone has down days, days when nothing seems to be going their way but kind words, using preferred love languages, and simple kindness encourages people to persevere through their darkest days. So often, people need a reminder that someone cares.

Confidence, to me, is the ability to be myself. It has always been vital that I am confident, bold, and driven. I do not let others sway how I feel about myself. I am who I am, and no one's criticism or praise will change that fundamental cornerstone of my personality. I work on being more confident in my nursing knowledge is to stay abreast of discoveries, advances and studies related to my field of work. Knowlege brings a certain level of assuredness and helps elevate any doubts in myself and my skills as a registered nurse. The more I know, the more I grow as a person, a mother, a friend, a spouse, and an employee. Confidence in myself leads to trusting myself in my professional life. Continuing my education will help me fill in knowledge gaps and give me the background to become more assertive as an administrator, leader, and mentor.

THE best way to live a healthy life is to keep your mind active. Exercising your brain is the most crucial thing in living a long healthy, happy life because as we age, we naturally have cognitive decline. Doing brain exercises helps reduce stress levels and increases your overall positivity. Brain exercises also help to improve focus and concentration and allow you to have a better general memory. Never smoking or quitting smoking will also drastically extend one's life by reducing their chances of heart attack or stroke, improving their lung function, and increased wound healing abilities, among many other benefits. Exercise is another key to living a longer, healthier life. Research has shown time and again that exercising improves your overall life expectancy because it lowers your risk of developing age-related diseases such as the development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. And finally, a long healthy life has to do with a person's mindset, in my opinion. So be happy, keep moving and live your best life.

I knew I was crazy going back to school at 35 years old with a 5-month-old baby. However, there I was, relearning college algebra and trying to figure out APA in English 102 as my colicky baby cried as soon as I laid her down. I was at my whit-end. How could I do this? Was I even smart enough to compete with new high school graduates and pass the TEAS test to apply to nursing school? Would they even accept me into nursing school? I was overwhelmed and overtired. I was working full-time and was a full-time student. How would I ever make time for my baby? As I cried in frustration, guilt, and exhaustion, I looked at her, my beautiful miracle baby, and I knew that I would be a nurse so she could have a better life and more advantages than I had. Class by class, then semester by semester, I did it. I did it. I passed nursing school, passed my NCLEX, and became a fantastic nurse and a role model for my daughter. Now I am back in school working on my masters degree to become my family's first graduate student. I never gave up. That is the secret. Never give up.

Personally, it is important to me to support equity and diversity in all areas of life because I grew up in a large, diverse, multicultural metro area and moved to a smaller rural area in Kansas as a young adult. It was astonishing to see the difference in attitudes towards people who looked, acted, or loved differently than their small town norm. It is crucial that each person, from childhood to geriatrics, be represented, seen, and heard. Representation matters. It matters to young girls of every color to see a solid female role model that looks like them in positions of power or influence. It matters that children and adults see themselves depicted on television or in textbooks. It matters that we embrace all cultures and languages at every level of a person's life rather than white-washing their culture or race so that others are no longer uncomfortable. Finally, equity is significant because we have too many people being bullied and committing suicide just because they want to be their authentic selves. I support diversity and equity because we do not live in an equal world. Equality isn't enough; justice, diversity, and equity might be enough to turn our world around.

I am a working mother, registered nurse, student, and time management is extremely important to my academic success. Prioritizing my family, career, and studies will always be challenging, but above all, my child comes first, then my studying and career. Because I am a working nurse in a local health department, I have the flexibility to multitask and study between patient calls, meetings, and Zoom meetings. Therefore, I find it beneficial to utilize a written planner and an email-based calendar system to organize my assignments, work meetings, and calls. Utilizing an extra few minutes on my lunch break or while my child is sleeping helps me to achieve good grades and effectively manage my time, so my child does not feel neglected during my studies. Since returning to school as a non-traditional, older student, other great studying strategies are applications like Google Docs, Quizlet, and Grammarly. Technology has advanced and simplified studying in many ways and makes sharing ideas and resources between cohorts extremely easy.