Update.

Whew, I need to stop abandoning this blog! I haven't been in the mood of writing lately, even though there is much I want to say. So here's an update of what's been going on in my life. I miss writing about nursing experiences, but I'm about to start my first job as a RN soon, so I hope hope hope that will get me back to writing. :)

Summer.

I like summer. After years of schooling, summer signifies a break for me. I’m not sure it will stay that way, now that I’m entering the working force—the real world, yo!—where you just keep on slaving away and summer will become just another season.

I’ve had two very interesting consecutive summers. Last summer, I was having the time of my life interning in New York. This summer, however, was quite the opposite. If last year I was in cloud nine, this year I often found myself in the deepest solitude. It doesn’t mean that it has been a bad summer, but it is just a summer full of introspections.

I graduated, I looked for a job, I didn’t get a job, I became a Registered nurse, I looked for some more jobs, and I finally got a job right at the eve of summer’s end. It was fitting, a full circle if I can say. I had many hopes at the beginning of this summer, but when those hopes didn’t materialize in reality and I found myself idle in this seemingly long summer, I realized that it was time to do some thinking.

As much as I was frustrated this summer, I am thankful that I had the time to reorganize my thoughts. Years of school being my priority did not leave much time to think about anything else, but now that I am done, I have all the time in the world to see things I had not seen before. I looked back to what has happened, to what God has done in my life, and to what I have become. Then, I looked to the future to set up new goals, to open myself up for new possibilities that God has in store for me, and to figure out what I want to become.

Life is about change, and knowing when to make that change.

Job.

The single word of “job” has overtaken my summer. The single quest to find one was enough to drive me nuts and leave me drained. But let me tell you the miracle of how I finally landed the job.

I had truly liked the unit where I did my last clinical at a highly reputable hospital in medical center. I had liked my preceptors. I had liked the unit director and the manager. I had like the nurses, the PCA’s, the unit secretaries, the whole staff basically. Although, I had not like this type of unit before I did this clinical, I had liked it two weeks into my clinical. Midway through the rotation, I started to feel like I know what I was doing and I was welcomed as a part of the team. A bunch of the staff had come up to tell me to work there after graduation, some had told me to come in wearing their uniform scrubs next time I’d come for clinical because I was already like one of their own, and even the patients’ meal service lady started calling me “baby co-worker”.

I gave my resume to the unit director two days before my last clinical. What I thought was supposed to be a short meeting between she and I turned out to be an encounter between she, the unit’s manager, the unit’s clinical educator, my preceptor, and I. They were all so excited about my desire to return, and the only rain on that parade was the lack of budget the unit had to hire more nurses.

I was disappointed, of course, but I kept in touch the unit director. We briefly exchanged emails ay the beginning of summer, and I never heard from her again. The summer saw me applying for various jobs and even interviewed, with no luck in landing an actual job. Also added to the equation was the complexity that is my international status. I was at my wit’s end trying to get a job.

I had lost hope for that unit, until on a whim, I decided to shoot the director an email saying that I had just passed my board and still interested to work there. She replied with words that she should hear about an opening in a week or two and that she had forwarded my resume to her recruiter. I thought it was just another false hope, so I didn’t think much of it. Lo and behold, the recruiter called a week later.

As I was talking to the recruiter, I kept waiting for her to schedule an interview. She never did. Instead, she scheduled for me to come in to take a medication exam. HOLD UP, I thought, medication exam isn’t supposed to be taken until one has passed all the rounds of interview and has gotten the manager’s seal of approval. Then, she kept on talking about doing background check and drug screen and paperwork, and I thought, WAIT A MINUTE, did she just offer me…?!

For a good week, I marveled at this fast turn of event. Did I just get a job?! OH YES I DID! Of course, I was still worried about my status holding me back, but they did not make a problem out of it. I claim this job in the name of Jesus, and as of now, I start orientation of my new job at the end of the month. I knew that this will come eventually, because I have faith that He will always come through. I just didn’t expect it to be this way with everything happening so fast once it started. But based on my experiences, He rarely does thing the traditional way. He’s funny like that.

The next level.

I’m content with my life, but I also know that, when God has finished a chapter, He has something better for the next one. Hence, I’ve been asking Him to take me to the next level. I need new challenges. I need experiences I’ve never had before. I need to build on my characters. But where do I go? What do I do? How do I prepare for this? How can I be a better person? It is a process, and it is not an easy one. I won’t know all the answers at once, but I’m willing to submit to His molding. That’s what I know for now.

One year.

While July 27^th marks the birthday of my twin nieces, it is also the day my Grampa died. The nieces that I have never met turn two this year, and the Grampa I’ve known my whole life has been gone for a year. It is an odd day for me, partly happy and partly sad, and the only common thing about it is that I yearn to see them.

I had been in New York doing my internship when I got the news that he was in the hospital, and my family had told me to stay put because he seemed to be on his way to recovery. However, almost a week later, when I asked my aunt again if I should go home that weekend, she said yes. I flew back on a Thursday and ended up staying home until the following Tuesday. He had been in the hospital for about 2 weeks, but we finally brought him home that Friday afternoon.

Early Sunday morning, around 5:30 to 6 am, my tearful Gramma woke me up. Being a student nurse at the time, the only one in the family who has medical knowledge, I was the first person Gramma called when she thought he had died. I rushed to his room, but I stopped on my track once I saw him. He looked different, and I knew he was gone. Nevertheless, I tried to find a pulse, begging God to let me feel one, but there was none. I looked at my Gramma and told her that, indeed, he was gone. I woke my uncles up, called my aunt, my brother, and my parents in Jakarta to let them know. That was a weekend I’d carry with me for the rest of my life. I don’t think I can forget having to confirm that my Grampa was dead and to break that news to the rest of my family.

A year flew by, and I thought of him often since then. I believe it’s safe to say that we all have missed him terribly. He was there through his grandchildren’s childhood, often visiting us bearing treats and taking us on a trip to the amusement parks, and sometimes, I just wished he could be here a little bit longer to see our life stories unfold now that almost all of us are grown ups. In the past 365 days, my brother J had gotten married and bought a house, my cousin C and I had graduated from universities—she a teacher and I a nurse, my cousin M had graduated from high school and is heading to college this fall, my cousin V had bought a house, my cousin K had given birth to E—his third great granddaughter, and my cousin S had gotten married. At every single of this event that we have celebrated, I wished he was here with us.

I know that he is in a better place and that he’s watching from heaven. However, I still can’t help but wish to have him here, there is a longing to see him walk down the aisles with Gramma at their grandkids’ weddings, to see him hold and play with his great grandkids, to see him be taken on a tour inside the houses that his grandkids own, to see him watch us graduate and be who we’re meant to be. More than anything, I wish Gramma still had him here with her.

The house has gotten quieter in the past year, and that has become our new normal. A new normal, in which we’d carry on with our lives, but, every now and then, we wish he was still here.

WTH?!

excuse the non capitalized blog entry. i just need to get this out of my head.

not gonna lie, i'm having a WTH?! situation right now.
no, not a moment.
a situation.
as in...it's longer and bigger than a moment.

no, it's not a bad "i'm hating this" kinda WTH?! but in a more..."i'm so confuzzled by this turn of event, but hey i'm going along with it" kinda WTH?!. what gives you may ask?

lemme explain.

for more than 5 years, i've wanted to be a nurse. i still do. i went through tough times, jumped a lot of hoops, and made sacrifices until i finally graduated from a nursing school almost 2 months ago (has really been 2 months already?!). i hold a bachelor of science degree in nursing, heck, i'm now a registered nurse. so i'm not wrong in expecting that i'd be doing a nursing job right about now, am i? like, you know, working in a hospital, taking care of patients, the way i have dreamed myself doing for the past, oh, five years? i'm not insane for thinking that it should happen right about now or anytime soon, right?

the reality is, i'm not doing that thing i've been dreaming myself doing for the past, oh, five years. a few months ago, i thought i had everything lined up and everything would go according to what i have dreamed myself doing for the past, oh, five years. but nope, as it is with life, it has a penchant for screwing over your plan. okay i take that back, not "screw over", i don't like to call it "screw over" because i believe that the big Guy up there always has surprises, and those always turn out beyond what i thought was best.

anyway, the point is, i'm not doing anything that i'm expecting and expected to be doing. not YET. i think "yet" is the key word here. jobs are scarce, even in the nursing field, which a lot of people don't believe but it's true. so finding a nursing job is harder than it used to, interviews are hard to come by, and competitiveness increases. not to mention my international student status that has become a hindrance. i believe the job will come. HOWEVER.

i'm doing something else right now that just comes out of the left field. something i've never dreamed myself doing in the past, oh, five years. it just sort of...happened, like a small snowball that grew ginormous as it rolls down the hill.

it's called...photography.

i've always have a thing for photos ever since i moved to the states 10 years ago. it came from being away from my loved ones, and wanting to share this new life i'm rebuilding with them. i'd buy film rolls all the time, making sure i was ready to capture every event to be sent back to my family and friends back home. as if i needed to let them know that, look, i'm okay here and this is what's going on with me. as if i needed to tell my parents that they made the right decision in sending me so far away at such a young age without them, because look at the pictures, i'm getting the opportunities they wanted me to have. it started from there, but i wasn't intrigued until eight years later (by this time i've said goodbye to rolls of film and have said hello to digital photography).

two years ago (ironically, this was also the time i started nursing school), i don't remember what sparked it, i became enamored with photos. i saw photos more than just a way to preserve memories. there is an art to it. there is a thought and a planning that goes into creating a photo. it's more than just a snap or a click. it's beautiful.

i then dived into the world of flickr. i'd become enraptured by the photos i see, the different subjects by the different styles of the different photographers. i wonder to myself, how can one creates images so...amazing? soon enough, i found a select group of photographers i like, and i follow their stream of photos daily. from those photographers, i started learning how to take pictures, and what to do with them afterward to make it your own.

it grew from an interest, to a hobby, to a serious hobby, and now to something possibly bigger that i've yet to know what to call it. when i posted pictures on my facebook, it was and is for the fun of it. i didn't expect the overwhelming positive responses i've gotten, and definitely didn't expect people to ask me for my photographing service. this is when the WTH?! comes in.

speaking of the now, i'm supposed to be doing nursing, but i find myself being asked "can you take my baby's pictures?" more than one occasion. so you see why this is a WTH?! situation for me? a confusing one at that? because i know more about nursing than photography. i went to school to be a nurse, not to be a photographer. i can figure out how to handle a crashing patient faster than i can figure out what aperture, shutter, and iso setting i need to use in a room. i can understand an ecg strip better than i can understand what those buttons are for in a photoshop software. i know very little about photography. my knowledge and technique are minuscule. there is a phrase "play it by ear", well, so far i play it by eye when it comes to photography.

recently, people have come out of the woods to tell me i have talent in photography. my nursing instructor said i could revert to it if nursing, by some weird kink in the universe, doesn't work out. my own mother said it and even encouraged me to take photography classes. some even went to say that perhaps i'm in the wrong career path and should switch to photography (to that i refuse to believe. i'm not in the wrong career path, i just have to make it bigger in the future for two careers. i can be a nurse and a photographer on the side, and i will be).

here i am, wondering, how on earth did this turn of event happen?! me, who's supposed to be a nurse right now and who only has a small grain of knowledge in photography, have people actually like my photos enough that they'd ask me to take photos of their kids?! taking pictures for someone is an honor, let me tell you, and these are their children they want me to take pictures of. so excuse me while i let out a big WTH?!

i'm not abandoning nursing. i'm a nurse. i still love nursing and it's still my priority. i'm still looking for a job, the job i've been dreaming myself doing for the past, oh, five years. for now, photography is just something that falls on my lap while i'm on this job search. but the rate it is growing, the irony, and the unexpected element of it are just enough to warrant a WTH?!. God makes life funny for me sometimes, and i'm like, haha *nervous laughs* good one, good one.

i don't know where this leads me. it's nice, i'm not complaining. i enjoy photography, it gives me a different satisfaction than what nursing gives me. but i'm just confused and wondering what's gonna come outta this and why now when i'm supposed to be doing something else. it's a good WTH?! though, because i'm going outside of the box here. photography isn't my comfort zone, it is an uncharted territory that's been given to me, and i'm taking it.

i don't know what He has up His sleeve at the moment, but alright, i'm going with His flow. but, for now, i just can't help but to let out a WTH?!....

.RN.

I know I haven't updated this blog in a LONG time, I've been tackled with job hunting and NCLEX prep and what not. But I just want to pop back in to say that I passed the NCLEX!!! OH. MAH. GAH. The time has finally come, the day is here. I logged in online this morning to see the quick, unofficial, result, and felt such an unbelivable rush of relief when I saw the word "pass."

This is the day I have in mind when I started this blog, that one day I'd get to write a post saying that I get to put RN behind my name. This is the day that has become my goal ever since I decided to pursue nursing, that one day I'd become a Registered Nurse. I dreamt of today, and I've worked hard for today, and it's an amazing feeling to finally arrive at today. It definitely worths the countless sacrifices, the hours spent studying, and the nights spent unslept.

Now that I'm one burden lighter, I will try to gather my mind and write a longer post or posts. I've been wanting to write about a bunch of stuff after I graduated but it's was just too much with too little time. So here's to hoping that I'll finally get to write those little thoughts out.

I'm here at a destination I've longed for, but my journey doesn't end here. If anything, it's just starting to get good. The road is long and there will be other destinations along the way. It's going to be one heck of a road trip and I'm looking forward for it. Like any great road trip, it's only great when you have a group amazing people who come along with you and make it bearable for you. Hence, I'm incredibly grateful for my people, those who were with me until I got here today, and I pray they stay on for more adventures.

Stay tuned, this blog ain't over! ;)

Weekly Happiness 3

Wow, another Sunday, another weekly happiness post. I'm quite liking making this weekly update more than I thought I'd be. Doing this forces me to find and remember things that make me happy and that I'm grateful of throughout the week, regardless of how simple they are. In a way, it lessens my complaints.

Anyway, onto this week's happiness:
1. Presented group project #1 and got an awesome grade on it.

2. For group project #2, we were required to write a paper and make a professional poster for our presentation. We designed the poster and put some content of the paper on it, then the school's IT team printed the big ass poster for each group. I was so happy that it turned out looking so well, especially proud that the pictures I took for the poster came out great on it. We'll find out our grade and if our poster wins or not on Tuesday.

3. A big group of us went out to lunch after group project presentation #2. Oh, it was such an awesome time together. I've said this before and I'll say it again, I really am going to miss them and it's going to be weird not seeing them every week.


4. My Sunday School kids did a presentation for Mother's Day and oh.mah.gah. I cannot stand the cute. They are precious, and I'm so priviledged to be their Sunday School teacher.

5.. I'm so giddy this week because, well, I'M GRADUATING NEXT SATURDAY and PINNING CEREMONY IS THURSDAY!!!! WOOOT WOOOT!!! I'm all set to go, I've applied to the board for my licensure, I've registered to take the NCLEX (just need to schedule it after graduation when the school sent the paper to the board saying that yes, I have graduated), and I've applied for my post graduation work permi.t (required for international students).

Finally, after these last two years of hard work, I am done. I have yet to find a job, which is a long story with my international student status and this issue deserves a post of its own. However, I am still so happy that I will soon be a nurse. This, too, needs a post of its own, which I shall write after finals. Oh yes, finals, I have two of those tomorrow and no, I have not an ounce of motivation to study. The most I've done is "study", thanks to senioritis.

Anyhoo, time to get back to "studying". Last final exams tomorrow! Wishing you a happy week!

Weekly Happiness 2

Oookay, I'm apparently not keeping up with the supposed Sunday night post of this weekly happiness. But last week, these made me happy:

1. I finished all my clinical! My last community clinical was on Tuesday and my nurse gave me a gift bag as a parting gift. She's amazing!


2. My friends and I went to the Chocolate Bar after our group project on Wednesday. Oh.mah.gah. We love that place! We got a big ass chocolate cake, 2 scoops of ice cream, and a candy bar cake. Mmm glucose....






3. My friends who didn't pass the HESI last month retook it agaon on Thursday. I'm so happy that most of them passed (despite the heartbreak for those who didn't) and will graduate with all of us. We went to celebrate that night.



4. I had lunch after yet another group project to celebrate my friend's birthday on Thursday. I'm really enjoying these outings with my nursing school friends as we're finishing up with school. I'm going to miss them once we graduate and won't see them every week.

5. I had my senior/graduation pictures taken on Saturday! I asked a friend from church to take it, and she graciously agreed. My bestfriend and her husband also tagged along, her being the creative director (because I cannot pose to save my life) and him being the assistant photographer. We probably spent around 2 hours in downtown area for the shoot. So.much.fun!

6. Then, we went to have crawfish at church afterward. That was mighty delicious! Yum!

Today is the last day of lecture, tomorrow is the last group presentation, next Monday is final exams, next Thursday is Pinning Ceremony, and next Saturday is GRADUATION DAY!!!

I'm so excited! I cannot believe that I started blogging my journey two years ago, and here I am about to end this part of the journey called the Nursing School. I don't have a job yet, still not finding any breakthrough in that area, but I have faith. A good hospital somewhere sometime (hopefully soon) will hire me and be willing to sponsor my paperworks. Amen!

I hope your week was happy and will be a happy one!

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.

HESI.

The HESI is this Monday, March 30, 2009 at 8 am. 160 questions of everything we have covered in nursing school. 6 hours allotted to complete it. A score of 850 needed to pass. Some schools require their students to pass the HESI in order to graduate, some don't. My school believes in the former.

A score below 850 means we take the second attempt in a month, and if we still don't pass, we don't graduate in May. We'll take independent study next semester and take the third and final attempt, a failure on that means we're out of nursing school.

You may think, "Hey, you have a second chance next month," but really, no one wants to take that chance. We all want to graduate and we all want to pass it on the first try. I don't think no one truly understands this pressure we're under except, well, us, and those who have had to take it. We have people, left and right, telling us that we will be fine, that we know these materials, that we will pass. As much as we appreciate the encouragement, and want to sit back and tell ourselves the same thing, we...find it hard to do so.

There are moments where I can tell myself that yes, I can do this, I'll pass. Then, there are moments where I am absolutely frustrated and scared out of my mind. As one of my friend put it, all our years of college come down to this exam on Monday. Everything we have worked for to get to this point come down to these 160 questions that will determine our fate. It's even more nerve-wracking than taking the NCLEX. At least, by the time you're ready to take the NCLEX, you have already graduated from school. For us, without passing the HESI, there will be no NCLEX.

So it's the Saturday before the HESI. Almost every one of my friends' Facebook status has conveyed these two words: anxiety and HESI. Our anxiety is in overdrive. We are freaking out. We are trying to de-stress from the pressure and at the same time staying focused. It is so. damn. hard.

We took a mini HESI last semester, and I scored over 1000, way better than expected. However, it was so...traumatizing, I guess, that I do not remember anything about it except for the anxiety I felt and when I got my score at the end. I don't remember any of the questions and whether I thought it was hard or not, which is odd because I usually have some kind of a semblance of the exams I've taken. Now, the anxiety I have is probably ten times that or worse. I just hope I don't go blank on Monday from it.

I'm praying for myself and everyone in my class to pass. We're on the same boat, all of us. In the last two years, we have kept each other going and inspired each other to be a better nurse, and there is nothing I want more than to see all of us succeed this Monday.

I'm just a human being overwhelmed by this mammoth of an exam, but my God is far greater than the HESI. When I start that exam at 8 am Monday, I know I'm not doing it by my own might for He is with me. If you believe in prayers, please pray for all of us in the Senior II class to do well on this HESI on Monday. If you don't believe in prayers, please send us good thoughts. We need it.