songofjoy02 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
songofjoy02) wrote2005-09-11 11:41 pm
songofjoy02) wrote2005-09-11 11:41 pm
Upcoming Plans for Life
I previously posted this only to a select group of friends, but I have decided to publicize a portion of my post so that anyone who is following my journal anonymously can see what I'm planning to do.
I am seriously considering going to nursing school. I'm probably more shocked than you are because that is the one thing I have rejected my entire life. No, not medicine, not the medical field! But there was a reason that I chose to take a year off for volunteer work and it wasn't exclusively to reach people during that year. I really wanted to find out what kind of education would be most helpful in that kind of work and, even after just two months, I'm pretty sure that medicine is it--nursing/nursing midwifery/reproductive health education. I'm still not 100% sure about this, but this awakening has been gradual...and I've realized that I truly do have a fascination with women's health. I actually have more of a medical background than I had realized. And my parents are definitely supportive and would be willing to help. Beyond ministry and background considerations, there is another motive lurking--not an exclusive one, but a motive nonetheless:
Self-sufficiency is looking more and more attractive to me these days. I'm hardly working at the moment because I hardly have anything to do at the community college. I am very bored and very poor--not a good combination. And the thing is this: I don't need to be either bored or poor! Nurses here (probably like anywhere) make an excellent wage. At this point, any regular occupation would be better than what I'm doing. But seriously...nurses can make a decent living. The work is hard, I know, but one thing I've come to realize recently is that you can actually leave it behind you when you leave the medical facility. I mean, you might take some work home...but it's not like a lot of corporate jobs--a lot of it must be done at the bedside, so you do kind of leave it when you leave the place where you are employed. Another positive thing is that nursing even makes good money part-time--which would free me to do whatever I liked in ministry even while making a living.
So it has a lot of positive aspects. I'm not sure what to think or what to do, but it's definitely an interesting thing to consider. The one comment I've gotten from people (except for my parents, for some reason) is, "I don't think you would like that." I ask them why, assuming that they'll say I don't have the stomach for it--or something like that. But it's never that. They assume that I'll be bored, that nursing is beneath me intellectually. Now I do realize that being a nurse does not, in and of itself, require brilliance; however, a field as broad as medicine, even within the sphere of a nurse, might easily be quite intellectually stimulating even while it is physically and emotionally demanding. Medical research continues to shed new light on various subjects of interest to me, so I don't think I'll ever run out of things to learn in this field. And all of that is to say that I sincerely doubt that I would find nursing beneath me intellectually (plus, my intelligence is overrated).
Of course, I'd still like to study the Bible in-depth (Bible school/seminary), go to law school, get a degree in Education, get a degree in English, and pursue training in in-depth counseling...but...at least nursing could be a start. And if I don't ever finish the other stuff...well, I'll still have a great backup job.
I am seriously considering going to nursing school. I'm probably more shocked than you are because that is the one thing I have rejected my entire life. No, not medicine, not the medical field! But there was a reason that I chose to take a year off for volunteer work and it wasn't exclusively to reach people during that year. I really wanted to find out what kind of education would be most helpful in that kind of work and, even after just two months, I'm pretty sure that medicine is it--nursing/nursing midwifery/reproductive health education. I'm still not 100% sure about this, but this awakening has been gradual...and I've realized that I truly do have a fascination with women's health. I actually have more of a medical background than I had realized. And my parents are definitely supportive and would be willing to help. Beyond ministry and background considerations, there is another motive lurking--not an exclusive one, but a motive nonetheless:
Self-sufficiency is looking more and more attractive to me these days. I'm hardly working at the moment because I hardly have anything to do at the community college. I am very bored and very poor--not a good combination. And the thing is this: I don't need to be either bored or poor! Nurses here (probably like anywhere) make an excellent wage. At this point, any regular occupation would be better than what I'm doing. But seriously...nurses can make a decent living. The work is hard, I know, but one thing I've come to realize recently is that you can actually leave it behind you when you leave the medical facility. I mean, you might take some work home...but it's not like a lot of corporate jobs--a lot of it must be done at the bedside, so you do kind of leave it when you leave the place where you are employed. Another positive thing is that nursing even makes good money part-time--which would free me to do whatever I liked in ministry even while making a living.
So it has a lot of positive aspects. I'm not sure what to think or what to do, but it's definitely an interesting thing to consider. The one comment I've gotten from people (except for my parents, for some reason) is, "I don't think you would like that." I ask them why, assuming that they'll say I don't have the stomach for it--or something like that. But it's never that. They assume that I'll be bored, that nursing is beneath me intellectually. Now I do realize that being a nurse does not, in and of itself, require brilliance; however, a field as broad as medicine, even within the sphere of a nurse, might easily be quite intellectually stimulating even while it is physically and emotionally demanding. Medical research continues to shed new light on various subjects of interest to me, so I don't think I'll ever run out of things to learn in this field. And all of that is to say that I sincerely doubt that I would find nursing beneath me intellectually (plus, my intelligence is overrated).
Of course, I'd still like to study the Bible in-depth (Bible school/seminary), go to law school, get a degree in Education, get a degree in English, and pursue training in in-depth counseling...but...at least nursing could be a start. And if I don't ever finish the other stuff...well, I'll still have a great backup job.