Coming out of high school, I became a pharmacy technician thinking that is what I wanted to do in the healthcare field. Little did I know, I was far off from what I thought my calling was. After working retail for many years, I scored an opportunity to work in a hospital as an inpatient pharmacy technician. That is when my eyes were opened, and I finally felt the true calling of my life come to fruition when I got to witness a few codes in the ED. After realizing that I wanted to be a nurse and was no longer satisfied with just pharmacy, I began to pursue my degree after having our two children. These two babies have taught me so much, but time and time again have they shown me that they are watching me and everything I do. With that being said, I truly hope that they see their mom and the efforts I am putting in not to only better myself, but to better our whole family. I want to show them that if you have a passion, you can achieve it no matter what comes to try to prevent you. I have had plenty of people tell me that I am crazy for doing this nursing journey with young kiddos, but to them I say it has been done before. I have especially been dismayed because my husband is also in the military and we are no where near family. None of this dissuades me ad I am fully determined to not break the course. Coming back to who I want to be as a nurse, I feel my interests would be considered sort of polar opposites. I would love to be either an ICU or cardiac nurse; getting to be there for patients darkest moments and everything about the heart to me is truly fascinating. On the other end of the spectrum, my other passion is preventing chronic health issues in the first place. The area I lean more towards is integrative medicine. This type of intervention has become a very personal story, in that I have really made steps to take hold of my health and change to help fix some health issues that a majority of society just treats with a handful of pills. Getting to teach patients that slow, baby-steps in modifying diet and exercise to treat chronic illness can sometimes not need the requirement of pharmaceutical intervention. I myself have made small changes and can validate that some ailments can be treated with a food-first mentality. Strange enough, I have thought about that I could even implement this mindset working inpatient with cardiac patients. With heart disease being the number one killer in the United States, I think when someone is hospitalized that becomes a big life-changing moment and the person is more likely to make modifications in order to avoid being admitted again. This is where I think I could truly harness my new mindset by helping implement a change to promote patients towards overall wellness in their life.

As a military spouse, I feel like challenges just come with the territory. It definitely depends on how you respond to said challenge. When I started being a milspouse after we got married, I was whisked away by my now husband three-thousand miles away to Maine from our hometown in Oregon. It was quite the whirlwind only 5 days after getting married to move, and driving across America in a little box truck with all of our belongings. The main (pun intended) challenge that I encountered was not just adjusting to being a military spouse and him being gone often on an ice breaker, but we were thousands of miles away from anything familiar. I had to find a new job, we had to find a place to live while we were on our way out to Maine, and just being alone posed to be difficult. Thankfully though, as the weeks went on, I made strides in overcoming all the obstacles. The number one thing to help our adjustment in Maine was that we found a church to go to. Having our faith definitely didn’t just give us a spirit of perseverance, but also provided us with life-long friends that we still stay in touch with today. So much so connected, there were some of those friends who were the first people I told when I found out I was accepted into my nursing program. Some others that I told first off were some of my old coworkers at the hospital I used to work at. Having my job was definitely not only a distraction from my husband being underway, but I also made multiple friends through that avenue as well. Between work and the church, I still have these friends that I plan to keep for life. With this experience of being so far from home and anybody I knew, I believe it one-hundred percent has made me into the person I am today. I don’t think I would be able to get through the nursing program, especially with kids, if I didn’t develop the resiliency that I cultivated while in Maine. At the end of the day, our whole Maine experience taught me to be resourceful, resilient, patient and just to be overall grateful for every experience and hardship I have gone through. If I could go back, I would not do anything differently. I feel like I had a lot of growing-up to do when I first married my husband, and what a way to grow up quickly than to move thousands of miles from loved ones and all things familiar.

When I started my nursing journey, I actually decided shortly after I had our daughter. I went back the summer she turned one and did one class online to get myself back into the grove of being in college. After getting an A in nutrition, I thought I could handle more. I did all the rest of my prerequisites that fall and winter term and it was definitely interesting. Having to keep track of everything involving my very difficult pre-nursing classes and trying to keep up with our daughter was hard, but we made the most with the time we had when I wasn’t studying. To make things interesting, my Coast Guard husband had us set to move mid-program so I wasn’t able to apply to the program. To make things extra interesting, we ended up getting pregnant with our son, and I did the last few prerequisites I needed for ADN as well as most bachelor programs while pregnant and the sickness and fatigue did make these classes challenging. I did get A’s in those classes, and waited to apply until after he was born and after we knew where we were moving to. Much to my disbelief and while anxiously waiting to here the decision, I was at my son’s wellness check appointment when I found out I was accepted into the program I had applied to. I will be using this education in more ways than I can name. Besides that I need this career change to feel like I am doing what I am called to do in this life, I want my kids to watch their mom work her tush off for something I truly crave. I want them to see that if you want something, it will take work to achieve goals such as these, but even “against all odds” it can be done. I also would love to support my family even more so financially than I already currently do. With the wide range of options and career opportunities, I hope to be able to work and still be able to fully participate in everything that my kids want to do. This even includes the fact that my daughter has told me that she wants to be a nurse too, and if thats the case I want to show her what it takes and that it can be done.

My husband and I came together and were expecting- a little pup! January of 2020, we brought home this 10 pound little black blob and named her Kimber. Of course at the beginning, she was the typical puppy; peeing all over my floor, chewing up a few things that weren’t her toys- the works. As time went on though, we started training her to be a bird dog and that’s when the real connection began. I remember the first bird she retrieved was the pivotal moment when all of the work and her trust in us solidified. Now, even though she is 80 pounds, she is now my over-sized lap dog and welcoming committee whenever I come home. Her love for not only my husband and I, but also our two kids has been incredible to have as a part of our family. She truly is the definition of unconditional love.

As someone who is pursuing a nursing career, having a passion that is a release from the stress of the job is vital. I have a few hobbies, which some people would not guess the first time around. I have been playing music and singing since I was in kindergarten and had been hunting and fishing since I met my husband over 10 years ago. After my mom had me change from gymnastic lessons to piano lessons, I was pretty upset. Little did I know, however, the level of love and passion I would have for music and that it would actually in turn help me meet my husband. Shortly after beginning lessons, I would look forward to each week on Thursday for my lesson after school. This carried through middle and high school as well, getting to play in jazz band and for theater plays. Since then, I have continued playing and am hoping to teach my children the love for music which they already seem to have! Since meeting my husband, he has shown me the love for the outdoors. We began hunting, hiking, fishing and camping together, which after we got married the adventure grew when we moved to Maine since he is in the Coast Guard. We enjoy rifle and archery hunting and have fished in all sorts of lakes, ponds, streams and even the ocean. It has definitely become a passion and a release where I get to soak in God’s creation and all the beauty beyond a paved road.

Healthy lifestyle is completely vital; I know how it is to be in a place of illness both physically and mentally. As the years have gone on and my nursing journey is in full swing come this fall, being a top health and making that a priority is crucial. I have heard horror stories of people loosing their health to promote the health of others, but as the saying goes, “you can’t pour from an empty cup.” The real push was over a year ago after I had my son. I was basically starved trying to care for him and his older sister and not thinking about myself for even a nanosecond. I also was diagnosed with postpartum depression, so to say I was not in a good place health-wise was an understatement. When I finally realized the detriment that my body and mind were faced with, I knew a change had to be made. Now a year later, I have implemented an exercise regimen, began to actually fuel my body with all the macro and micronutrients it needs, and really focused on what I needed to continue to pour out to my family, friends, work and school come fall. This is also what I hope to achieve as a nurse is to help patients see that even with just a little bit of work, you can make leaps and bounds with your health both physically and mentally.

Nursing has become a passion that fills my soul, and it all started with my role model- my mother who is a pediatric nurse. I started out as a pharmacy technician coming out of high school, and have been working as one for 7 years, but had my shift after working in the hospital setting. I felt like that to an extent I was helping the patient with the meds I was providing to the floors, but I wanted a more primary involvement in patient care instead of a secondary approach. Between working in retail and hospital, I felt my involvement in the patient moving towards wellness wasn’t enough. When I had told my mom I wanted to go back to school for nursing, she chuckled and said, “I knew you were gonna be a nurse this entire time, I was just waiting for you to realize that!” Shortly after that, and having our two children with my husband, I began my nursing journey with going back to school and starting my prerequisites. After completing my required courses in order to apply to the program I was applying to, I started talking with my mother more and more as the deadline approached. She asked me, “which specialty would you like to pursue?” To be totally honest, at first I was not 100% sure that I wanted to work in pediatrics. The more I have thought about, and the more encouragement I received from her, I have taken it into consideration more and more. She will talk to me constantly (within HIPAA guidelines of course) about cases she has taken care of and different diseases she has encountered on her unit. As she tells me how diverse the case load is and some of the even rare diseases that she has come across has definitely peaked my interest in the area that I am always wanting to dive deeper on my knowledge. Her compassion for her work and those tiny humans surpasses all in my humble opinion, and inspires my own future practice as a nurse. She has also encouraged me with how she watches me react and care for my own babies. She had said it once herself that, “it really helps a pediatric nurse, in my opinion, if you have children of your own.” To have that love and compassion and to know what kids are into these days and how to therapeutically communicate with them to me, seems to be the step up. So as I begin my nursing journey this fall (as of this date April 28, 2022, I found out I was accepted yesterday), I take this into very careful consideration of what I want to do with my nursing career. The more I think about becoming a pediatric nurse, the more excitement builds within my soul and my eagerness to start in September. In such a diverse specialty, I cannot wait to not only learn more about the pediatric population, but to really be the advocate and support for my patients and their families.