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Good morning, good evening, good afternoon,

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good whatever time it is, wherever

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you're listening to this, whether you're

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driving, jogging, sitting in your car,

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whatever it is that you're doing,

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I wanted to say hello, I'm

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John Hawes, our in, founder of

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nursing.com, and over the next couple

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days throughout this week, I wanted

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to share with you some of

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my journey through nursing school, getting

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in nursing school, and since leaving

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nursing school, and hopefully you can

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resonate with different parts. of that

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journey. So we're going to

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start the story back

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in, gosh I can't

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remember what year it might

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have been. Oh gosh,

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2000, shoot I honestly

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can't remember what year

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it might have been,

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I guess, 2010-ish, 2009-ish.

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I was, my wife at

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the time and I had just

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moved up to Oklahoma for her

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to take a job as a

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dietician in a hospital and I

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wasn't exactly sure what I was

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going to do with my career

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with my life etc. So I

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began attempting flipping houses so I

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bought a couple really cheap houses

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I'll put it that way and

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tried to fix them up and

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things like that and realized that

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I wanted to do something different.

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So I enrolled in a business

1:23

program and got a degree in

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business management. and still wasn't

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feeling it in that field

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and decided, you know what,

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let me try medical school.

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So I started taking physics,

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I mean, I'd had taken

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a bunch of anatomy and

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physiology and different health classes

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in my first run through

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college, and at this time

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I enrolled in physics and

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some additional chemistry classes

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and things like be

1:54

able to apply to

1:57

medical school? Well, I didn't

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pull off the... I hoped I

2:01

was going to in those courses

2:03

and I got pretty negative about

2:05

my options of getting into medical

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school and I was starting to

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get a little bit older at

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the time I was 28 29

2:14

which you know obviously isn't very

2:16

old but I realized you know

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by the time I finished medical

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school I'm going to be 35

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pushing 40 and I started to

2:25

get a little negative on that

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panning out. So I applied for

2:30

a job. at Academy Sports, which

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is a regional sporting goods store

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similar to like a Dix sporting

2:36

goods in the South. And I

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got a job as an assistant

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buyer. Now, at the same time,

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I was talking to one of

2:45

my buddies who had just finished

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medical school and he mentioned to

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me, he said, hey, I wish

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I had known about the career

2:54

field of CRNA. certified registered nurse,

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anesthetist, anesthetist, or basically you provide

2:59

anesthesia care, but you can do

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so as a nurse. After you

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go to nursing school, work in

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ICU for a couple years, then

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get into CRNA school and do

3:10

your program there, you can then

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start to provide anesthesia care. And

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so I looked this up and

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I thought, wow, okay, that's an

3:19

interesting career path. And so I

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at the same time applied to

3:23

nursing school. So I'd apply for this

3:25

job and got this job. I had

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also applied to nursing school and I

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happened to get in. So we were

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at the time we'd move back to

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Texas and so I'd had this job

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offer which was going to be down

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in Houston and we were living in

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Dallas and then I got into this

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nursing program that was up in Illinois.

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And so the decision became... Kind

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of tough it was like which path

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are we going to choose the two

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very different paths and both were starting

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at about the same time So my

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wife the time and we sat and

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we talked and we thought about it.

4:02

We said, okay, what are we going

4:04

to do? I can either go this

4:06

business route or I can go this

4:09

nursing slash healthcare route. And the decision

4:11

was actually really, really tough, right? Because

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those are two very opposing pathways through

4:16

life. And so what we ended up

4:18

doing, what I ended up doing is

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I called the nursing school and I

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said, hey, look, I appreciate the acceptance,

4:25

but is there a way that I

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can defer enrollment. for an entire semester,

4:30

which would have bought me about six

4:32

months time to kind of make this

4:34

decision. At the same time, I called

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the Academy Sports and told him, I'm

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going to accept this job, we're going

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to move down to Houston. And so

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the concept was, the thought here was,

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well, I can defer enrollment in nursing

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school, I can't really defer a job,

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so I'll go take this job, see

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how it pans out, if it's not

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working. and it's not something that I

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enjoy, it's not a path I see

5:00

myself in, I can then quit that

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job and go to nursing school, which

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obviously is a big commitment still, but

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would have given the opportunity to have

5:09

the job and see what happens with

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nursing school. So it was kind of

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keeping both doors open. So I took

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the job, we moved down to Houston.

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And within the first week of this

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job, I absolutely hated it. I couldn't

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stand sitting behind a computer all day.

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I couldn't stand sitting at a desk

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all day. I didn't feel like I

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was making a big difference in the

5:32

world. My job was an assistant buyer

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in the golf department. So I was

5:37

essentially buying golf balls, shipping them to

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different stores and things like that. I

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just felt like, you know, the other

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path was nursing where I can make

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a big difference in people's lives. feel

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like I'm doing something productive in the

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world versus this job that I have

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here now, which is buying golf balls.

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So I wrote out the job and

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I decided after some time that this

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just wasn't going to work for me.

6:02

What really put the final nail in

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the coffin and I wasn't making much

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money at this job. I think, you

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know, this is again, rewind the clock.

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This is about 2010ish. I was making

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the equivalent of like 18 an hour

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with a degree, college degree, in a

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business environment. And Sandy was working at

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the same time as well. And so

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together we were making enough money where

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we could buy house and afford everything

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just fine. But one day. As I'm

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home for lunch, Sandy had a doctor's

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appointment that day. She calls me and

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she says, I'm pregnant. And I was

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ecstatic, like we'd been trying actually for

6:40

a couple years, and had no clue

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that she was pregnant. But they did

6:44

a test on her and realized, holy

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crap, she's actually pregnant. So she calls

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me, she says, I'm pregnant, and I

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think, oh my gosh, this is incredible.

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Now, at the same time, though, this

6:56

other wave kind of hit. And we

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realized like we'd always wanted her to

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be able to not have to work

7:03

full-time and didn't really want to have,

7:05

you know, full-time child care for an

7:07

event. So we realized she was going

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to have to cut back her hours.

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And as we looked at that, it

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became really clear that this job that

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I had wasn't enough to support a

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family. So kind of this slap in

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the face of extreme excitement, but also...

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worry of like how we can manage

7:26

this in nine months from now. And

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so I called the school, I said,

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okay, I'd definitely come and save my

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seat. I'm going to be there in

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January, and this was in the fall

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of 2010 going into the program started

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in January 2011. So I rode out

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the job not letting them know that

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I was planning on quitting. And then

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as we got closer and closer to

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January, I did let that job know

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that we were going to quit. So

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over a very short amount of time,

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I had to quit that job. pack

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everything up, try to sell our house,

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and do all that in a short

8:03

time. And at the same time, I

8:05

was also finishing up a microbiology course,

8:08

which I needed to be able to

8:10

start the program, which I'd put off

8:12

until I decided I was going to

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go to the program. So I was

8:17

taking this microbiology course, preparing to have

8:19

a child, quitting a job, packing everything

8:22

up, selling a house, and then attempting

8:24

to move all the way to. Illinois

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in a matter of just a few

8:29

weeks. So we were able to get

8:31

all of that done. Okay, we got

8:33

all of that done and moved my

8:36

wife who was pregnant at the time

8:38

and at this point when we moved

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in January, December, January of 2010, 11,

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she was at the point six or

8:44

seven months, six months pregnant it would

8:47

have been. So we did all that

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so I was having to do most

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of the moving myself. and we packed

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it all up into this U-Haul, drove,

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she drove the car, I drove the

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U-Haul, we drove a few hours, stopped,

9:00

and slept as we moved our way

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up to Illinois. We get to Illinois,

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and it is snowy, snowy, snowy, snowy,

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snowy, snowy, we were coming from Texas,

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right? We get to Illinois, and everything's

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covered in snow. I'm gonna start nursing

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school the next couple days. We unpack

9:15

everything in school the next couple days.

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We unpack everything in school. So we

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unpacked everything and got it into this

9:22

house as best we could. This was

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all of our belongings in this U-Haul

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and moved into this house which was

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close to the hospital that she was

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going to be working at and also

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fairly close to the hospital I was

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going to be doing my rotations at.

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So over this time we got everything

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unpacked, we got prepared, and we began

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to get ready for me to attend

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nursing school and for her to have

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a baby in about three months. So

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this was my condensed journey of getting

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into nursing school. As we we

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continue this story,

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I want to talk

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through my first

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day in nursing school,

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my first week

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in that very first

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semester. I was terrified

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as I was showing up for nursing

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school, and I wasn't sure if I

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was going to be able to survive. to

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So when we pick up tomorrow, up

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I'm going to talk about what I

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did during that first semester that helped

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me survive, that that was good, and also

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those things that I should have done

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differently, differently, which would have helped me me. Let's

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say survive much better and maintain my health

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and my mental health in a much

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better way. pick up So we're going to

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pick up there tomorrow. that said With that

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said, if you guys are starting out,

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this of this journey resonates with you,

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I want you to know that We're in your

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in your corner. We're your biggest fan

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here at nursing and and we love

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you, and go out and be your best

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self. Happy nursing.