life and school and the like
Apr. 14th, 2008 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janegodzillaSo hey, guess what? I'm in love with a boy, and I'm totally going to apply to nursing school.
I know those two things don't have anything to do with each other, but I figure that I might as well get two sweeping pronouncements out of the way for the price of one. So...there you go. In love with a boy, nursing school. Whee!
The Nate thing will probably get its own post, once I stop freaking out enough to write about it. He doesn't know, thank Christ, so it's mostly just a matter of me having a complete mental spaz-out on account of I didn't expect it to happen so soon. But, like I said -- that gets its own post.
Nursing school, though. I'm cool with writing about that now. It probably seems a little out-of-the-blue, but I've been thinking a lot about school and jobs and careers a lot lately, and I've come to realize that I want an actual, honest-to-God career. Becoming a published author still is and always will be my ultimate goal, but I want to have something to do in the meantime. I thought I could make do with office jobs, but...no. Not happening. The longer I work in an office, the more I realize how much I dislike it. I have no passion for it. There's no security in it. I'm an easily replaceable little robot, and the thought of spending the next five, ten, fifteen years as an office monkey makes me want to fall apart.
I want to have a job I'm passionate about. I want to make a difference. I want to do something I'm good at, something I care about, something that requires the people around me to be good at what they do as well. And while I've never written much about it here, medicine is something that's always interested me. I come from a family of nurses, doctors, and physical therapists, and before the siren song of the liberal arts lured me into creative writing and the like, I'd planned to go into medicine, either as a psychiatrist or forensic pathologist. I don't really want to be either of those anymore, but psychiatric nursing? Travel nursing? Cardiology? Oncology? Hoo boy. Sign me up!
At first, my plan was to go for an AA from one of the community colleges, like PCC or Clark. But I did some more digging around, and it turns out that OHSU has an amazing program for students who have bachelor's degrees in non-nursing fields. It's an accelerated program, five quarters, full-time, incredibly intensive, but I'd come out of it with a BSN, not an AA. The OHSU program is one of the top ten in the country, so I could basically write my own ticket after that. Getting into the program is tough, but so is getting into any nursing program right now. PCC is on a fucking LOTTERY system for their Nursing AA through 2010 or so; I think I'd be better off going for the OHSU program, where I'd get in based on merit.
That part is a little ways out, though, because I have to get in my prerequisites first. Another nice thing about the OHSU program is that you don't take the prerequisites there, but rather at any of the schools on their list. In the next few weeks, I'm going to try to talk with admissions folks at both Clark and PCC to find out what all is involved with registering for classes. PCC hasn't posted their summer schedule yet, but Clark has, and it looks like I can start on Statistics or Human Growth and Development this summer. Part of me wants to shoot for both, but that would be a wee bit masochistic, what with my having a job and a life and whatnot.
Besides, masochism can come later, when it's time to sign up for my lab classes (Anatomy and Physiology represent, suckas!).
I don't know. I'm really, seriously excited about this. I love the idea of being in the medical field, and I love the idea of doing something I'm good at, something that helps people. I love the idea of incorporating the things I learn into my writing. I love the idea of being a professional, of having an actual career. Even taking the prerequisites and the overall competitiveness of entry into the program into account, I could still have my degree in three to four years, which is fucking AMAZING. I'll be completely changing careers and earning a second bachelor's degree in less than five years.
I don't think I can properly express how cool this is.
And there are so many kinds of nursing! Psychiatric nursing intrigues me the most right now, but there's a whole laundry list of nursing sub-specialties, and something might strike my interest once I get farther into the program. Right now, I'm just going to focus on getting my prerequisites in. Everything else will fall into place, because I've got a plan now -- for the first time in my life, I've got a goddamn plan -- and I'm utterly determined to make it work.
I'm going to do this. And I'm going to kick ass.
I can't wait.
I know those two things don't have anything to do with each other, but I figure that I might as well get two sweeping pronouncements out of the way for the price of one. So...there you go. In love with a boy, nursing school. Whee!
The Nate thing will probably get its own post, once I stop freaking out enough to write about it. He doesn't know, thank Christ, so it's mostly just a matter of me having a complete mental spaz-out on account of I didn't expect it to happen so soon. But, like I said -- that gets its own post.
Nursing school, though. I'm cool with writing about that now. It probably seems a little out-of-the-blue, but I've been thinking a lot about school and jobs and careers a lot lately, and I've come to realize that I want an actual, honest-to-God career. Becoming a published author still is and always will be my ultimate goal, but I want to have something to do in the meantime. I thought I could make do with office jobs, but...no. Not happening. The longer I work in an office, the more I realize how much I dislike it. I have no passion for it. There's no security in it. I'm an easily replaceable little robot, and the thought of spending the next five, ten, fifteen years as an office monkey makes me want to fall apart.
I want to have a job I'm passionate about. I want to make a difference. I want to do something I'm good at, something I care about, something that requires the people around me to be good at what they do as well. And while I've never written much about it here, medicine is something that's always interested me. I come from a family of nurses, doctors, and physical therapists, and before the siren song of the liberal arts lured me into creative writing and the like, I'd planned to go into medicine, either as a psychiatrist or forensic pathologist. I don't really want to be either of those anymore, but psychiatric nursing? Travel nursing? Cardiology? Oncology? Hoo boy. Sign me up!
At first, my plan was to go for an AA from one of the community colleges, like PCC or Clark. But I did some more digging around, and it turns out that OHSU has an amazing program for students who have bachelor's degrees in non-nursing fields. It's an accelerated program, five quarters, full-time, incredibly intensive, but I'd come out of it with a BSN, not an AA. The OHSU program is one of the top ten in the country, so I could basically write my own ticket after that. Getting into the program is tough, but so is getting into any nursing program right now. PCC is on a fucking LOTTERY system for their Nursing AA through 2010 or so; I think I'd be better off going for the OHSU program, where I'd get in based on merit.
That part is a little ways out, though, because I have to get in my prerequisites first. Another nice thing about the OHSU program is that you don't take the prerequisites there, but rather at any of the schools on their list. In the next few weeks, I'm going to try to talk with admissions folks at both Clark and PCC to find out what all is involved with registering for classes. PCC hasn't posted their summer schedule yet, but Clark has, and it looks like I can start on Statistics or Human Growth and Development this summer. Part of me wants to shoot for both, but that would be a wee bit masochistic, what with my having a job and a life and whatnot.
Besides, masochism can come later, when it's time to sign up for my lab classes (Anatomy and Physiology represent, suckas!).
I don't know. I'm really, seriously excited about this. I love the idea of being in the medical field, and I love the idea of doing something I'm good at, something that helps people. I love the idea of incorporating the things I learn into my writing. I love the idea of being a professional, of having an actual career. Even taking the prerequisites and the overall competitiveness of entry into the program into account, I could still have my degree in three to four years, which is fucking AMAZING. I'll be completely changing careers and earning a second bachelor's degree in less than five years.
I don't think I can properly express how cool this is.
And there are so many kinds of nursing! Psychiatric nursing intrigues me the most right now, but there's a whole laundry list of nursing sub-specialties, and something might strike my interest once I get farther into the program. Right now, I'm just going to focus on getting my prerequisites in. Everything else will fall into place, because I've got a plan now -- for the first time in my life, I've got a goddamn plan -- and I'm utterly determined to make it work.
I'm going to do this. And I'm going to kick ass.
I can't wait.