Nurse Your Life Back to Health!

Chapter 2: Praying, self reflection and soul searching

Life before nursing: Short bit about why I changed my life at age 30. The short
answer? I was emotionally lost and empty. The long answer? I promise it will not be a
lengthy autobiography. But it’s possible you can identify with my personal experience
starting over and may help you see that it CAN be done!

So I was your average A/B student in college and after five years, I finally graduated
with a B.S. in Biomedical Science. After graduation, I landed my first job as a research
assistant and did that for a couple years. When the research project ended and the lab
closed, I was approached about an opportunity to work as a heart pump technician at a
nearby hospital. This for sure helped pay the bills but something was missing. Research
was interesting but not for me. Heart pumps were way cool, but I worked nights and
wanted more. And the student loan bills were piling up and the pay was crap. I was
getting depressed. I didn’t see a life in research for me. I was a people person. I didn’t
see a life working nights as a heart pump tech either. There was no career path.
Graduate school meant more research so that was a no go. More dead ends and lots of
prayers later, another new opportunity was presented to me….

Money was also an issue and a source of some anxiety and a lot of sleepless nights. I
was in a lot of student loan debt and I did something way different by applying to be a
business consultant. I knew someone who knew someone and was offered the position.
The starting pay was like DOUBLE my current salary. Cha-ching! I knew this would help
me get out of debt faster which was a major source of my financial worries. So I took the
offer. Fast forward through four years of business process design for the oil & gas
industry while traveling all over the United States. I’ll admit it was interesting and fun,
but in my gut, I knew it wasn’t for me. I was depressed. Again. But this time, I got some
spiritual and objective help and talked to a counselor.

What is a quarter life crisis? My counselor advised me that I could be suffering from a
“quarter life crisis”. I had never heard of this, but apparently it is fairly common. She
gave me a book appropriately called, a Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of life
in Your Twenties by Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner, 2001. She said “read this and
I’ll see you in a week.” Ha! Typical. But she was right. Great book. Thank you
Alexandra and Abby! I have it referenced. I devoured it and did some soul searching
and came to the conclusion I needed to be a nurse.

Nursing was a good fit for me. It checked all the boxes! I knew it would help me
connect with people on another level that pairs my desire to help and serve others with
my interest in health and science. My personality type also lended itself to this
profession. I recalled some of the most fulfilling memories I had in my life were when I
helped a person through something or connected with someone in a vulnerable
situation. I also missed the interactions I had with patients in the hospital during my time
as a heart pump tech. I recall making sure I addressed them by name and looked them
in the eye and treated them with respect and dignity. I was also kind of protective of my
patients as well. Hmm…there is a sign for sure I should be a nurse. And I missed
science too. So there I was in a hotel in Name Your Major City, USA still working as a
business consultant while hatching a plan to quit and go back to school. I needed to
nurse my life back to health is how I put it.