In January I started college for the first time in my life. I had a background with business management and I have worked in the medical field but not hands on.
Scared to death, I went and took the entrance exam at the local college and to my amazement I passed and was accepted to start pre requisites for the nursing program. I was totally on track and had all the classes planned out quarter by quarter in order to finish up by January 2011. That is when the next program was to open up to start the actual nursing classes for the LPN program. I kept hearing that you had to keep a high GPA because that is how the application process was. There is a waiting list at all schools around me and the competition is fierce. The first to sign up and the students who had the highest GPA were to be picked for 30 open positions.
I worked my ass of studying, I knew I had a goal and I really stuck to it. I amazed myself how well I did. I kept a 3.85 GPA throughout. (stupid computer class, the only B I have made) This was a great thing since I haven't been in school in 25 years and let's just say my highschool grades aren't anything I would brag about. So I have these classes behind me with all A's. English, Math, Psychology, Anatomy and Physiology, Medical Terminology, Intro to Healthcare, Nursing Assistant and Drug Calculations.
This brings us to last quarter and I thought I was on the home stretch. I had spaced all classes out so that I wasn't overloaded and I would still be finished by the time my application was to be sent in. WElllllllll, my wonderful school decided that it was time to change from quaters to semesters. They went back and forth several times changing everything around and leaving a lot of the students not knowing what was going to happen.
The final decision was to have a program be available for this fall (2010). That left me with one class short. (Diet and Nurtrition). I was finally told that I could exempt out of the class but after trying to cram a quarter worth of work into three days before I was to try to take the exempt test I decided it wasn't worth the stress and something was telling me that this wasn't the direction I was supposed to go. Maybe becoming LPN just wasn't in the cards for me. I finally let it be and decided to look at other schools and other ways to get into Healthcare. I didn't want to settle on just anything. I wanted to work with patients and help people when they needed it most.
As I was looking at a school an hour away, I was led into the direction of Emergency Medicine. It was a chance thing to run into this person who I spoke with and it all starting clicking. I checked out the program closer to home but was told there was a waiting list so I applied to the school in Macon and was accepted into the EMT/Paramedic program. Lucky again because they were only taking 30 students. Another chance meeeting led me to someone else where the program is at the closer school and I begged my way into that class. So now I am 15 minutes from school and I don't have to worry about my car breaking down on I-75 on my way to macon. If is dies now at least I can take Travis to work and still go to school.
So as of next week I will be starting my EMT/Paramedic program and see where that leads me. I get to do all my clinicals in the ER of several different hospitals and on the ambulances. I can't wait. I always say things happen for a reason but I am just nervous starting something new. After I become a paramedic I can decide whether I want to bridge to RN. Right now I am just taking it one day at a time again.
That is how my life has been lately and where I am headed. I want to thank all my little cheerleadeers who have kept me sane during the last 9 months. Times I doubted, times I was so stressed I was ready to quit. So without you I wouldn't have made it. Thank you for all the encouragement.
Just remember you are never to old to follow your dreams.