Weekly Happiness 1

So here's my weekly happiness that I promised on the previous post, albeit a day late (I was supposed to post it last night, but late is better than nothing, right?)

1. My car has some problem on Monday, but my brother and sister in law spent a part of their off day from work taking my car to the shop to get it fixed on Tuesday while I went to clinical. Then, I had dinner at their house. I'm grateful for them.



2. We had a group meeting on Wednesday, and went on another cupcakes run afterward. We got red velvet, coconut, and orange cupcakes.






3. I had a baking session with Yossi from In Love with Baking. Hilarious!

4. I brought the black forest cake I made with Yossi to another group meeting on Thursday and shared it with my group mates. They loved it!





5. I was inducted to Sigma Theta Tau, the international nursing honor society, on Friday. My youth group friends and I then went out for dinner and went to get desserts at the Chocolate Bar. I had a white chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate bits, mixed with girl scout thin mins ice cream. Best ice creams ever!


6. I went running at a park with some friends on Sunday evening, and that was a surprisingly fun time. I think yesterday was the first Sunday I spent outside the house from morning to evening, and not doing any school related work. I went to church, lunch, running, and dinner (although I only had a bow of shaved ice dessert). It was a very good Sunday. :D

So, basically, I had a lot of desserts this weeks. Hence, I am very happy. Haha. What can I say? I'm a desserts person.

What's your happy things from this past week?

Happiness is....

HAPPINESS IS SINGING TOGETHER WHEN DAY IS THROUGH
AND HAPPINESS IS THOSE WHO SING WITH YOU
HAPPINESS IS MORNING AND EVENING
DAYTIME AND NIGHTTIME TOO
FOR HAPPINESS IS ANYONE AND ANYTHING AT ALL
THAT'S LOVED BY YOU

That's a song from "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" musical, and I've always loved it. It's simple, yet worth so much truth. The reason I'm posting it is because, goodness gracious, I've not been all that happy lately.

School has turned into madness with having to work on these different group projects that are due one after another, plus doing a couple set of 12 hour shift back to back 3 days in a row to finish the 170 clinical hours, plus the other clinical for Community class, and, of course, exams. To top it off, there is the whole issue with New York and hiring freeze and the decline in hospitals sponsoring international students like me. I've been one exhausted mess.

This past week, I did not stop until Saturday evening. Everyday of last week, sunup to sundown, it was was filled with class, exam, writing papers, reading research articles, clinicals, group meetings, and group presentation. That is until Saturday evening when my group and I left the school computer lab at 5 pm. In the past month, I've become impatience, bitchy, snappy, grumpy, and extra sarcastic. I've neglected my family, my friends, and other this and that's. I've been all over the place and I hated it.

So here's what I'm going to do. For the rest of the semester, for the 4 more weeks I've got left of school, I'm going to try to jot down things that makes me happy. I'm so tired of feeling so beaten up all semester long, and the end is near, and I want to be happy about that. So for every day for the next 4 weeks, I'm making a list, and I'll post it every Sunday night (I'll put extra effort to make that happens, hah!)

So let's start with the happy things of the past week, even though it's hard to find them:

1. The director & manager of the Medical unit I have my clinical at are very pleased with my performance, and the staff is very supportive to having me on board as a part of the team. The director is in the process to get an approval from HR to be able to hire RNs for the unit. I'm praying that she gets approved soon and will give me a call. I had a very positive responses from her, the manager, and the clinical leader when I handed my resume, etc. to her. Yay for a job prospect!

2. After the kind of group meeting where you can cut the tension with a knife (not pretty btw), a few friends and I went to get cupcakes to de-stress. Much to our surprise, the store owner later gave free cupcakes for each one of us. Cupcakes really do make all things well and happy again. :)

3. Despite spending a good chunk of our Saturday doing fire safety presentation (stop, drop, and roll, yo!) for kids at a clinic, and going back to school for more projects (plus my fender bender in the parking lot in stormy weather), we had a good time at lunch and many laughs looking at the pictures.

4. Had a down time Saturday evening with another group of friends to celebrate a friend's birthday. It was nice to sit back, relax, and chill. Of course, I spent the rest of the (short) weekend at my weekend getaway, also known as my bestfriend's house.

So that's for this past week. What are your happy things?

Passed.

I'd like to write more about this HESI after math, alas I'm bombarded with clinicals and studying (yes, already) for Monday's exam this week, so this will do.

I PASSED THE HESI!!!! A score of 850 is needed to pass, and I scored a 1000.6, which means I have a very good chance of passing the NCLEX! Huzzah!

All the glory goes back to God, I know I couldn't have done that well without His miracle. The whole 3.5 hours that it took me to finish those 160 questions, I was tachycardic, having cold sweats, nauseated, jittery, and on my way to hyperventilate. I had to constantly remind myself to breathe and focus, breathe and focus, breathe and focus. I remembered having a hard time to slow down in reading the questions after I returned from bathroom break, I had to mentally slap myself to stop rushing. It was the worst 3.5 hours of my life.

And when the screen revealed the score, I couldn't believe it. My instructor came over and patted me on the back, congratulating and telling me I had done wonderful, while I sat there slack-jawed. It was a relief I cannot describe.

Afterward, my friends and I went to lunch and had a couple of drinks, then joined another group at another bar, before finally settling at this cozy little bar, where out instructors also came out to celebrate with us. I have to say we have some of the most amazing instructors, who not have been nothing but supportive and helpful throughout our (almost) two years.

My thoughts and prayers are with my friends who didn't pass. It's hard to celebrate when your heart is saddened for them. Their second chance is within a month and I have faith that they will make it. I pray God grants them the wisdom He granted me this past Monday. I want nothing more than to walk in graduation ceremony in May with them.

HESI is over, a weight has been lifted. However, I'm still heavily busied with exams, group projects, papers, and clinicals. I cannot believe that it's only 6 more weeks until I finish nursing school. I long for the day when I can officially add "RN" behind my name.