The pursuit of nursing is more than a passion, than a career, or a job, for me, it is a calling. It was the end of 2021 when my mother was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. Watching her wither and struggle to a rare gynecological cancer rocked my world to the core. Through her battle with ovarian cancer, we learned that this cancer came from a rare genetic mutation that passed down along the mother’s side of inherited genes. I knew that this battle had sparked something deep within me. While I had longed to pursue a career as a doctor, my mother’s battle introduced me to a calling I could never have imagined. Watching her enduring over twelve lifesaving surgical procedures and three years of ongoing chemotherapy and immunotherapy gave me insight into what patients really needed. I was fully invested in her care, at every visit, chemotherapy infusion, surgery and along with the pain-staking weeks in the hospital. It was not the doctors who made the biggest impact on my mother but the nurses who were with her at her side. Through long hospital stays, in emergency rooms, in surgical recovery units, I met the most caring, compassionate nurses from all walks of life. Each nurse seemed to possess person insight into suffering and the human spirit. Through these interactions, it was clear that they had great purpose and meaning. The purpose is to show love and compassion to strangers, to be there in their lowest, degrading moments, and to encourage them to see that there will be a bright side when the suffering is done. As I sat by my mother and interacted with hundreds of nurses, I realized this is where I belonged. The nurses who left the largest impact were the Nurse Anesthetists. They were the last face she would see before undergoing anesthesia. The CRNA nurses gave reassurance to my mother and gave her peace in moments when she needed comfort and assurance that there was going to be a brighter side when this suffering was done. She didn’t know if she would awake put trust in them with her very life. She shared with them her final words before slipping into a deep sleep and entrusted them to carry those words to me if something were to happen. The weight on the CRNA was heavy but each surgery, each deep sleep, she came through on the other side. My pursuit of serving our communities as a CRNA nurse comes from a deep and personal passion to give back, to show compassion, and make a lasting impact to those in need. The opportunity to help those going through the scariest time of their life is where my heart lies today. I hope that with my background, I can provide the same compassion, care and hope to patients as the nurses who cared for my mother.