For those who care.

I have just a few weeks left of nursing school. That fact doesn't jive with the absence of knowledge in my brain, but somehow it's true. I have almost accomplished this bizarre idea that settled in my mind three years ago. I'm still not quite sure how it all happened, how nurse trumped graphic designer and professional organizer and party planner on the list of Things I Could Do to Make Money, but it did and so we are here.

The past three years have been spent getting used to poop and snot and giving shots and pretending to hear heart murmurs and trying to mask the look of disgust on my face when lunch comes to the unit. I have been completely annoyed with the woman thanking God for helping her stand while I cleaned the diarrhea off of her legs. I have been shocked by the drug addict whose arm had become so swollen it had to be cut open and left that way until she recovered. I have been heartbroken at the baby with CMV who was deaf and struggling to breathe and tragically inconsolable. I have been humbled by the man whose sinus infection went into his brain and took away the personality he always had. I have been astounded by the woman whose heart was being paced by the device taped to her throat. I have been mesmerized by the Congolese woman who clucked her way through childbirth. I have been scared of the wound-up man pacing the halls of the psychiatric unit with an animalistic look in his eyes. I have been grateful for the news that they got all of one man's lung cancer through surgery. I have been inspired by the 91-year-old woman with no children and no husband who had an endless string of friends at her bedside.

I have seen and been a part of things I didn't know were possible, and even more incredible, I have cared for people going through these things. Somehow, I managed to merge compassion, intuition, responsibility, knowledge, and common sense to a productive and useful end, even though that end was usually one lap around the nurse's station.

I can't believe how fast it has gone by, how much has been crammed into it, and how much I have yet to experience. And I can't wait for the part where I make money again. I think we should probably have a party to celebrate.