When I started nursing school, my girls were three and one. I thought I would be able to juggle everything with ease. Homework, housework, clinicals, daycare pick ups and drop offs, studying and being sure that I was spending time with them and making sure they were feeling loved and provided for. I have never had a harder reality check in my life. It did not take long for me to be drowning in all of the to-do's. Nursing school was, to say the least, an eye opening experience. I fell in love with mursing more than ever, I loved the content, being in clinicals, being amongst peer with similar goals, being around supportive teachers. I felt at home when I was at school, then I came home to chaos. It pushed my family to its limits, it tested my marriage to unthinkable realms. Every day is a battle, some days we are more prepared than other. Some days we forget our armour and swords and are wounded badly. I was horrified for my girls. To have them see their strong parents stretched to their limits. To see us crumbling under the pressure before their eyes. This fear was a reminder that I was doing all of this for them, enduring and succeeding for them. I was working towards a goal that would benefit them. Working towards a dream of mine while teaching them a lesson under the surface. If you truly want something, work for it. If it seems hard and pushes you out of your comfort zone, it's teaching you growth, resilience and that it's worth it. Life is hard, I want to teach them that they can do whatever they set their minds to. To teach them determination, focus and drive. I came to realize that I was teaching them all of these things. They were learning while they helped me make flashcards, when they asked me about pictures in my textbook, while they watched me study for hours on end and still make them dinner. In the end, I'm pursuing something that I love, something that I'm passionate about. I'm pursing a career that will teach me every single day and push me to my limits. I love healthcare, I love what it means and what it does. It cares for those who need it, it advocates for those who feel that they've lost their voice, it sees the vulnerabilities of people and welcomes them with open arms. It cares for people holistically, mind, body and spirit. I will carry that in my practice every single day and hope to remind those along the way who may have forgotten.

What is empathy? According to the dictionary, empathy is, "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another." Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? What a powerful asset this is to have in your toolbox though. Empathy, is something I value in myself. As a nurse, this will be one of my most powerful tools. It allows me to connect with patients on a therapeutic communication level, to make them feel validated for having the feelings they do. To make them feel seen after feeling invisible by others. Having empathy for others helps establish a foundation trust and encourages openness in communication. Often times confused with sympathy, empathy is having the ability to feel what someone is feeling through their eyes, not yours. You can be sympathetic for someone and feel bad in the aspect of hiw it would make you feel, but allowing someone to know that you are in their corner and understand how they feel in their own self is powerful. I am currently enrolled in nursing school to become and RN and I use this tool everyday in clinicals with patients, during class with my fellow students, at home with my children and my husband. This is such a wonderful tool to apply to your everyday life, it will enhance your communication skills tenfold and help encourage others to feel comfortable with you and trust you. It allows people to feel heard, seen and understood when they don't otherwise feel that way. After years of being a CNA, being empathetic with my patients has helped in the treatment process with them, it has helped build mutually trusting relationships and has taken the nurse-patient relationship to a very constructive level. It makes them feel human, accepted and validated. Which I find are very hard things to openly ask for in another. Patients are exposed to you, sometimes at their lowest points in life, when they are most vulnerable and scared. Being able to empathetic with them can help them feel comfort at the most uncertain times. I cannot speak enough for how important those feelings are, especially being at the other end of the relationship. When I was a patient myself, I was blessed to have such amazing nurses by my side who were able to be amazingly empathetic to my vulnerability at that moment. They made me feel so comfortable during private procedures, they stayed by my side and held my hand and offered words of encouragement during the procedure and helped me feel at the best ease I could. I am so thankful to have had encounters with nurses that were able to help me in a way than just treating me for my condition. It changed my whole mood and helped put my soul at ease in times of uncertainty. I cannot wait to be that nurse for someone when they need it most.

Have you ever taken the time to have an actual conversation with a senior in your community before? Have you ever asked them about events they have gone through throughout their life? The stories will simply amaze you. I have spoken to seniors who have endured and survived the Holocaust, I have spoken to a woman who was the first female police officer in Rhode Island, men who have fought in multiple wars and lived to tell the tales. Things that we ourselves might never experience in our lifetime. They talk about how much things were in their day, how milkshakes were 10 cents and how they were there when the depression took place. The most magical thing about having these conversations with them though, is the way they light up as they talk about what they have seen, accomplished and endured. It helps them feel like they had a purpose and they still do. Helping seniors reminisce on their lives helps them more than you can imagine, it helps them feel a sense of self-actualization. It's part of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it's the last step and just as important as the other steps. I have spent many, many years as a CNA and have taken time on my days off to visit with my residents and have conversations with them about their family, their lives and their feelings. I like to believe I help them feel seen, understood and not just as a number. So, if you have time in your life, stop and just have a conversation with your fellow senior, it could make their whole day. They may live alone and rarely have conversations, or they have no family to talk to any longer, you never know how much a conversation can make a difference.

Motherhood, the greatest accomplishment I have by far done in my life as of yet. It is rewarding, challenging, patience testing, heartwarming and hard as hell. Being a mom has brought so many challenges to my life, it has truly pushed me to understand what I am capable of as a woman. I have started my education from scratch at the age of 25, endured two pregnancies while in school and continued my education while raising them. I never really understood the challenges my mother spoke of when I was younger and now that I am a mom myself, I have never understood someone more in my life. Being a mom and trying to continue my education has proven to be the biggest challenge of all for me. Through all the late nights of studying and nursing sick babies that have been up all night I have never been more proud of myself and all the things I never thought I was able to do. I did two remote semesters with a newborn on the other side of the screen with me, I have learned how to have a healthy balance of school and motherhood. I am about to partake in the biggest challenge of my life in two weeks when I start the RN program. I am going to have to navigate how to give my all to the program while simultaneously giving my all to my family. I have had to figure out childcare for my one and three year old while I pursue my dream. We don't have a lot of family or help care wise for our children, so making sure they are cared for while I am in school has been the hardest of it all. The cost of childcare alone is going to be the biggest burden for us. I only hope that the end result of my completion of the program will soon reap its benefits, that I will be able to continue to be a caring mother while I do my studies. This scholarship would be an indescribable help to my family. It would alleviate some of the stress of being able to provide care for our little ones while their mom is on a journey to purse her dream of creating a more financially stable life for us. I want to set an example for my girls and show them that they can do anything they put their mind to along with hard work. I just want them to be proud of their mom, I want to be someone they can look up to in the future. I just want them to know that I am doing this for us, for them.

Have you ever felt trapped by the assumed societal standards of being a woman? I'm a stay and home mom, a wife, a student and there are assumed things that I am expected to do every day on top of trying to further my education to create a better life for my girls and myself. I am expected to care for our very small children, clean the house, do the laundry, grocery shop, make dinner, be a personal driver for my children, be a personal assistant for my husband, all the while trying to also juggle the demands of schooling as well. I have become a product of the expected demands of the way our society perceives women. A person who has turned a house into a home, a person who raises humans the best she can without any complaints or expectation of help from others. I have done all of these things and lost my own identity in the process. I find this to be a common thing that happens among women, especially mothers. We are expected to be these models of perfection and are shamed when we do things against the standards of society. We are shamed for doing what works for us and our families that don't fall into the expected norm. We are shamed if we work and enroll them in daycare because we need to provide for the home when we are expected to stay at home and care for them 24/7 without breaks or complaints. We are shamed if we want to do something for ourselves for once. We need to drop this standard of women. We are an equal opportunity counrty and those opportunities should apply to all of those moms making it happen every day. We work harder than most people. We are on the clock always, working our "jobs" always. We need to drop the 1950's stigma of moms, we are multifaceted individuals. We are capable of raising a functional, happy family and having a career. We are entitled to be our own person and have our own identity, our own dreams and aspirations. I feel that society limits the availability of resources to those moms who work harder than anyone. We need to encourage more support and resources to those moms who want to make something more of themselves. There need to be programs in place to offer help for those who need daycare who don't have family help. We need to support the ones who have always supported others. It's our time to shine. Our time to make something of ourselves. It time for society to acknowledge that we are more than just moms, we are capable and we will do amazing things if we can have the resources available to us.

The day I lost my father and my brother are days I will never forget. I lost pieces of my heart along with them. My father, the most loving and patient man, is a huge reason why I am going to school to be an RN. He is the one who introduced me to a woman who would help me become a certified nurses aide, which would be the first experience I had with the medical field. I fell in love with caring for others at that level. I cared for people who had no family to come visit, I cared for people who.would become a part of my family which would only enhance the way I cared for my patients. He was patient, respectful, loving and kind, all things I would use to only make myself a better aide. It is because of him that I would find my place in the medical field. I would find my purpose for life. I felt complete caring for people of all kinds, I felt like I had found the thing that I was meant to do. Without him here in my life is the hardest hurdle I have to overcome every single day. I have lost one of my biggest fans, a supporter, I have lost a voice of encouragement that I need most. He lost his battle with his mental health, he lost the strength to carry on each day. As a registered nurse I feel I can become an advocate for those struggling with the same issues, I can help those who feel they can not help themselves out of the drowning of their own thoughts. He is the reason I fight to help others, it is a way I feel I can honor him and his memory. I will continue to fight each day, even if it is only to help save one person.