Mine life, Nursingness, and such stuff :)

I am now over half way done with my first semester of nursing school. I just went back and looked at the first few blogs that I wrote and it already feels like that was such a long time ago. Just this last weekend I was able to attend a nursing conference and it got me so Jazzed! Over 400 nusing students and Nurses showed up. The NSNA is the National Student Nurses Association, and they put on this conference. They do them twice a year all over the country but this mid-year conference just happened to be in PHX AZ! I was able to learn about so many different opportunities and specialties that interested me. One opportunity that stood out was were I could attend grad school! Well it was a place that I had never thought of going but it seemed to be the perfect fit. Where might this be????

VANDERBILT school of nursing in Nashville Tennessee! I would get my master of science in nursing in 2 1/2 years and then spend another year 1/2 for my DNP (doctorate of Nursing Practice) in Midwifery or Neonatal Nurse practitioner. I haven't decided which of those two specialities I want to go into. Do I want more of the pregnancy, labor, and delivery? Or do I want the delivery and the important care of critically ill or high risk newborns? I want them both.... so how do I choose? Well I have a few years to figure that out, and I'm sure my OB rotations in the hospital will help. Here are some pictures from the conference

This is Me standing with the CEO of the American Red Cross!! Talk about an incredible woman! One among many great Nurses to attend the conference.

This was the board of Directors and a picture of Lisa and I.






So that's my plan as of semester one. I have no idea where life will take me but it sure feels good to have this as my goal. Since the first time I thought about becoming a Nurse practitioner I have felt a pull towards it. I feel like a little kid again and if you ask me what I want to be when I grow up...It's a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner! I looked at my life and I thought, wow, the sky is the limit! I can be anything I want to be. I have absolute freedom. I am not married, I don't have kids and so right now I can go for it all.... and I am going to.

On to other things, Halloween was last weekend and I had a lot of fun. The conference put on a Halloween party Friday night so I was able to dress up twice:) I was Freddy Kruger this year.

I got Balloon Boy! And Wolverine!
On the actual Halloween I went to the Phoenix Zoo and helped my friends with a haunted house. It wasn't really a haunted house though, It was set up to be an exhibit of dangerous creatures. You walk in and you think that you are going to see a terrifying deadly monster and as soon as they drop the curtain to reveal it....the cage is empty and The monster had escaped! They rush everyone out and then the rest of the exhibit is running and trying to get away from the monster that is on the loose! It was really fun to be apart of it. I scared so many people, and a made a few kids cry...Not on purpose though! I felt bad and so I broke character a few times to sooth young kids being forced by their parents to continue on. After the Zoo, I teamed up with Elena and we went out dancing. We stopped by Mern's on the way and saw All the Besties, it was so good to see Meagan, Roy, Zach, Kara, Lindz, and Mern. I love those kids! Elena and I had a lot of fun and we stayed out til after 2 am. Good times!

Well that's the update for now. I am just learning to put pictures on here so I hope they all turn out!