Diary of a Nursing Student...

It’s the first month of this semester, the timetables are out and my clinical rotation schedule is so overwhelming. The best I can do is try to calm myself down, my heart is hardly beating. I am halfway through nursing school, but it feels like I just got started. Things are getting tougher as we go by but it is only two more semesters after this until graduation. Exciting. Backbreaking, but exciting nonetheless. Getting a C after spending countless hours of studying doesn’t make it any better.

 I thought Fundamentals was difficult, but Pharmacology has proved to be something else- with the medications and s**t to master. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the same girl who used to average a 90% score the previous semester.
A quick look at the mirror and am a different person from when I started. It can wear anyone down. Insomnia has become a friend. 25 hours a week on school work- on the downside, and 2-3 days a week at work is quite stressful. “Only one more month and the semester is over,” I console myself. The weekly Girls’ Night Out has silently been relegated to the backdrop. Answering to texts and calls from my girlfriends has become as difficult as it gets, sometimes a couple of days go by before I remember to reply to a text or missed call. It’s a difficult job being my friend right now, I feel for the few ones that have stayed by me. A night out once a month is not enough, but they do appreciate the time we get together.I miss movie nights with my sister. Is there anything I could do about the absent-minded attention I give her when she’s telling me how her day was? I wish! The heart is willing, but the body is tired and the mind is in a universe of its own. There is no better friend than a sister, and she deserves better. And oh, I have this little cute nephew who I was excited when he was brought into this world. I dreamed of being the naughty aunty who would sneak him a piece of cookie when his mum wasn’t looking, gobble up the remaining vegetables on his plate and make a wicked grin when he is being congratulated for eating up his vegetables, and sneak him into my room, teach him crazy dances then film him on my phone doing them. A year down the lane, that excitement has turned into emptiness as I hardly ever have time for him. The time’s that meant for him- after class, is spent up either in the library writing a paper or locked up in my room revising and preparing for tomorrow’s classes. I hope he doesn’t grow up so quick that I have no childhood memories to make with him.

Did I mention that I hate waking up at 4am? No? Is there anyway someone who likes waking up at 4am, even nerds don’t like it? But I have to. It takes me an hour and a half to get ready (don’t give me that look, I am a lady. Duh!), so I have no option if I am to make it to the clinic by 6.30 before the theory classes start at 8. I think I’ve gotten used to it, the snooze button on my alarm now gets to rest. The classes end at 3 with a session at the lab. Thereafter I head over to this outpatient hospital for the elderly I recently started working at. I love that job. It gets me the opportunity to work with other people and experience other people’s adventure. I also get to put into practice the theory learnt in class. Wednesday is usually a day off, but it has remained just as hectic as the other days with the schedule just as tight.Mom has really taken well to my situation and understands that I haven’t pushed her away. I am mama’s girl, or used to be. Endless phone calls every other day. I used to be at her beck and call whenever she needed any favors. Not anymore. I pray for the calls to end as soon as I have answered them. Requests for favors are added to my already full to-do list and sometimes take ages to be completed. When this is all over, I will make it up to you mama.4 more clinical rotations to go this semester. Two more semesters to get done with this course. Nursing school can drive someone insane. So it’s a big thank you to everyone who has been by my side and helped me remain sane. Love you guys...