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?