I have always enjoyed the idea of becoming a nurse. It has always been my dream career. I currently work as a certified nursing assistant and love everything I do. My job is solely providing the best care to patients for their lives to be the best they can have. Being a nurse is so much more than a medical profession. Seeing a resident walk again after a long recovery from a car accident, seeing grandma with a new hip and smiling, it is simply the connections and bonds with patients that are made along the way that I look forward to every single day. Working in the field as an assistant, you can see what nurses go through and they are superheroes. The stuff they deal with daily can be so gut wrenching and aggravating, but you will not find one complains. This is what they signed up for, this is what drives them. Nursing is only for certain people, and I know I am one of them. My goal upon completing nursing school, it to be become a pediatric nurse. I love working with kids, after all we are all still kids in some ways. I knew I always wanted to work with kids, hence me going to school to become a teacher. Teaching never worked out because my heart has always been so stuck on nursing and healthcare. I am a volunteer coach for Daviess County Special Olympics team, and I love working with the kids and athletes every week in their activities and competitions. It really is all about the smile they give back when you know this is possible because of you. I know pediatric nursing isn't always going to be rainbows and sunshine as most people think, it’s going to be difficult keeping a kid still so I can set up an IV or dealing with the divorced parents both wanting to make medical designs regarding their child, and the screaming, jumping on the beds, and just so much more, but that is something I know I am getting into. That is something that drives me to this field. Pediatrics is a whole different environment, and it is the environment that I belong in. My career won’t stop at pediatric nursing. Once I obtain my RN and start working as a Registered Pediatric Nurse, I will also be continuing my education online to obtain my BSN for pediatric nursing. This will take some time to complete, but once I am done with it, I will go even further to become a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. Being a nurse is a lifelong commitment to saving people’s lives. The thought of it gives me an adrenaline rush, and it is something I have worked so hard for, and it is finally only a step away.

Being a single mom is challenging. I became a mom at the age of 19. I was in school, scared, stressed, and lonely. My grandparents raised me my entire life due to my biological parent's drug addiction. My grandparents were very old-fashioned and I was scared beyond measure to tell them that I had become pregnant. I knew I always wanted to be a nurse. It has always been the plan since I can remember. When I became pregnant, I was told I could just throw everything out the door because it was no longer happening. I dropped out of school, started working full-time as a CNA, and was miserable. I love my job as a CNA but it broke my heart knowing I would become nothing more. I hated coming home to my child and him being so happy to see me when I was so depressed. One day I had just decided enough is enough. I do not have to live like this. I do not want my son to ever have to think that he ruined my life. Anything I tell myself to do, I can do, I just have to set my mind to it and then pursue it. I enrolled back in college and started taking courses. In the last semester of my associate's degree before being enrolled in the nursing program, I received some shocking news. My grandmother was diagnosed with dementia and she is failing fairly last and my son was diagnosed with Autism, all within a week of each other. It became a lot to take in all at once and I felt so overwhelmed. I never withdrew from school, and I never let my grades get behind. I know that what I am doing now is going to benefit our future and what is happening at this moment is something I can't change, I just need to work with it. My son has therapy Monday through Friday every single week. I have scheduled his sessions around my classes or have had his therapists go to his babysitter's house for his sessions. My son is on the moderate-to-severe side of the spectrum. We fear he may be nonverbal as he is 2 years old and still has not said any words. He doesn't communicate with hand gestures, ASL, or his words. I have come to terms with it. It is okay if he is like this, I wouldn't change him for anything. He is perfect the way he is. We have such a special connection due to his diagnosis. Times when I thought he was having a temper tantrum he is just overstimulated and asking for help. So being a single mom of a child with a disability and pursuing a nursing degree is challenging, but I know it'll be worth it in the end. I tell myself every day, that everything I am doing right now is for him in the future, for him to have a better home, everything he needs for therapy, and anything he may want, it is all affected by the choices I make now. I have overcome so much in my life as it is, and nothing is going to prevent me from obtaining my BSN.

I have always enjoyed the idea of becoming a nurse. It has always been my dream career. I currently work as a certified nursing assistant and love everything I do. My job is solely providing the best care to patients for their lives to be the best they can have. Being a nurse is so much more than a medical profession. Seeing a resident walk again after a long recovery from a car accident, seeing grandma with a new hip and smiling, it is simply the connections and bonds with patients that are made along the way that I look forward to every single day. Working in the field as an assistant, you can see what nurses go through and they are superheroes. The stuff they deal with daily can be so gut wrenching and aggravating, but you will not find one complains. This is what they signed up for, this is what drives them. Nursing is only for certain people, and I know I am one of them. My goal upon completing nursing school, it to be become a pediatric nurse. I love working with kids, after all we are all still kids in some ways. I knew I always wanted to work with kids, hence me going to school to become a teacher. Teaching never worked out because my heart has always been so stuck on nursing and healthcare. I am a volunteer coach for Daviess County Special Olympics team, and I love working with the kids and athletes every week in their activities and competitions. It really is all about the smile they give back when you know this is possible because of you. I know pediatric nursing isn't always going to be rainbows and sunshine as most people think, it’s going to be difficult keeping a kid still so I can set up an IV or dealing with the divorced parents both wanting to make medical designs regarding their child, and the screaming, jumping on the beds, and just so much more, but that is something I know I am getting into. That is something that drives me to this field. Pediatrics is a whole different environment, and it is the environment that I belong in. My career won’t stop at pediatric nursing. Once I obtain my RN and start working as a Registered Pediatric Nurse, I will also be continuing my education online to obtain my BSN for pediatric nursing. This will take some time to complete, but once I am done with it, I will go even further to become a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. Being a nurse is a lifelong commitment to saving people’s lives. The thought of it gives me an adrenaline rush, and it is something I have worked so hard for, and it is finally only a step away.