A Week in the Life of a Nursing Student

I wanted to share a little bit about how my week plays out as a nursing student. I am fortunate in the fact that I have more time off this semester than I did last semester however I am crazy busy all the time. Looking back to my undergrad years I always had time “after homework” however in nursing school that does not exist. My school is an accelerated program so we are constantly on the go and learning new things. Each class has homework of at least 5 chapters each week to prepare for the lecture that week in addition to a variety of projects and papers spread intermittently throughout the semester. Additionally there is always at least one quiz during the week and we have times where there are marathon tests. I currently am at the tail end of one of those marathon test periods. I have already taken 3 tests in the past 3 weeks and I have two more coming up!

Every day is a study day for me, here is a little glimpse into my life as a nursing student.

Monday- My catch up day, meaning 12 plus hours dedicated to studying and reading.

Tuesday- My morning is dedicated to studying then in the afternoon and evening I have 7 hours of lecture.

Wednesday-My morning is filled with 3 hours of lecture followed by about 3 hours of lab and then 2 hours of another class.

Thursday- This is one of my clinical days where I get to put the skills I have learned to practice.

Friday- Another “rest” day! Again dedicated to catching up on readings and studying so another 12 hours.     

Saturday- Clinical day! I just like on Thursday get to put my skills to practice and help all sorts of individuals in the hospital setting. This is a 12 hour work day.

Sunday- Time to rest- aka study all day! 12 hours

Then repeat!

Although it may seem incredibly intense which it is, I absolutely love it and would not trade it for anything. Of course throughout my day I find time to eat, sleep, worship, and hang out with friends. One thing that is so important is to find a balance in your life. This is not only applied to nursing school but just in general to achieve a happy and healthy life.



Have a wonderful week lovely readers!   

 

Peace Starts with Yourself and Grows

     Each and every day I love to surround myself with positivity. I always strive to find joy in each day even if it is simple as serving another with a good deed. Personally I love wall art that has inspirational sayings on them, one that I particularly love has the following saying: Peace Starts with Yourself and Grows. This is by far one of my favorite sayings because it is absolutely 100% true! Each and every day we wake up and we have a choice to make, either we can chose to be happy or we can chose to let outside forces and people control us.   


Growing up I unfortunately had the mindset that others controlled my destiny and I let other people get to me. For example I found myself commonly thinking that my own happiness or lack thereof was caused by others. This occurred for me commonly in middle school, a time where kids are extremely cruel, and as a kid you have no idea who you are. Reflecting back I put my search for happiness into the hands of others. My thoughts consisted of things like I would only be happy if the popular girls like me, or I would finally be happy if I was able to get all A’s.  This mindset continued into my high school years and into my college years as well. It was not until I started to serve others that I found this mindset was not true.  Peace and happiness are internal elements that WE create in our lives. If a person is constantly going through life with a mindset that they will one day find happiness the bottom line is they will never find it because happiness and peace are internal factors that we CHOOSE to bring in our lives. Peace comes from within ourselves and can be manifested by works that we do, but ultimately it is a choice we make each any every day. Remember you CAN find happiness and peace in your life, you just have to stop looking for it externally and rather look within yourself.     

Playing "The Game of Life"

Have you played "The Game of Life" when you were younger?  I know I have multiple times, both as a board game and as a computer game, it is a really fun game however hidden in the game is a concept that there are set times that things should occur. This concept is really personified in the computer version because the voice in the audio track constantly says Stop then some sort of life event. These include STOP-College graduation, STOP-Get a job, STOP- Get Married, STOP- buy a house, and finally STOP- have a baby. When playing this game as a kid I was constantly ready to get to these STOP locations because I wanted to advance in my future of the game. I remember that I would get upset if someone got to a STOP point before me. Fast-forward years later and between the game and society this linear pattern of time and accomplishments has be implanted into my brain and at times I feel less than I am when somebody else makes it to a STOP point before me.

While I was at UCLA I took an education class where the professor challenged this linear concept of time. He taught us that we don’t have to follow a set path that is laid out for us by society and what we think in correct in our mind. If we do follow it, then it will end up in heartbreak when we don’t reach a certain goal in the time we thought we would. An example of this can be seen by my age and the next step in my life which would be getting a job/marriage based upon the linear pattern of time. My mom got married when she was 24 years old and this year I am turning 24, if I define my life accomplishments based upon the linear concept then I am behind in my life plans compared to how my mom was. Looking back at my mom’s life she and my father had enough money to afford a house and already had stable jobs. For me personally right now I am in the middle of nursing school so my life is dedicated to studying and I have no time for a job to make some extra money. Additionally when looking at marriage right now, although I would love to be married, I can’t because I personally am not in a place to be married, unlike my mom at 24, I cannot afford to purchase a house. Do I define my success in life based upon the fact that I am not married and currently have no job? If you follow the linear pattern of life then yes because I am not in the place my peers’ are/mom was.

I am not going to lie, I used to follow the linear pattern but a couple years ago I realized that this pattern of thinking is only detrimental and absolutely absurd. There are no set times when we accomplish tasks, if my best friend gets married before me it does not mean that I am less than her. I really want to stress the concept that your life is yours and you only live once. If you go around defining your success based upon where you are in “the game of life” compared to others you will never feel accomplished. Rather going down this destructive road make a list of things you would like to accomplish in the next 10 years with absolutely no deadline. By doing this you are making a goal list rather than a timeline. You are the person who controls your life not others, embrace each day not as a race to get to a certain goal but rather a blessing that has an infinite amount of possibilities