The Next Few Weeks

Wow.  What a journey this past 2 years has been and in a few weeks this part of the journey will be over. Some big news came this week as I was told I had been nominated by my professors to represent my RN to BSN graduating class and speak in front of the entire body of graduating nurses, including the new nurses and those getting their Masters.  What an incredible honor that shall be.  Basically, it is the valedictorian role for my graduating class.  I am already thinking of the speech I will write and of course I will add it here because it is part of the journey I am on.  I know I will definitely be mentioning that one of the people it will be dedicated to is my father.  He was present at my graduation as a Diploma nurse 14 years ago and was smiling with pride, so his presence will definitely be missed at this graduation.  He taught me many things, one being to work hard for your dreams no matter what they may be.  I know he would be proud.

Sadly, I have not heard from Duke this week and in my heart I know what this means.  I have had time to realize that this is meant to be this way.  Perhaps a year off between schooling will be good.  Of course it will not be a year off as I will be taking one class in the fall and a GRE prep class so I can write it again and get even more competitive scores to go up against my younger competition.  However, with my son starting kindergarten in the fall maybe this direction is happening for a reason.  My youngest going to big kid school will be tough on me.

Another emotional moment this week has been working on the life review on my mother that I am doing for my one nursing class.  Today I wrote a poem that will be going in the scrapbook part of the presentation, after this has been graded it will be given to my mother.  I am not a professional poet by any means, but I enjoy writing poetry.  So I thought I would share it here:

The Lesson

My classroom was never full of desks,

Or children laughing about silly events,

There’s no teacher standing statuesque,

My lessons were taught with much different content.

These lessons began the moment I cried,

Strong arms held me close in a warm embrace,

A lesson about the bond that was tied,

She looked down at me with eyes full of grace.

As I grew the woman continued to teach,

I recall my first bike ride and a scraped knee,

The kind lady looked down and gave no long speech,

It was as if this moment she did foresee.

Then came my hormones and feminine change,

My teacher had prepared me for these events,

Things we discussed in our nightly exchange,

Her words of wisdom were worth more than two cents.

Boys entered the picture in my teenage years,

The lady watched from afar with wise eyes,

For her this moment brought forth many great fears,

But she knew that her student’s strength would rise.

Then the vast darkness entered my life,

It’s arms forever holding me tight,

The power of this cloud was quite rife,

But my teacher held on for the fight.

She knew her student was inside of that cloud,

Her belief in the lessons kept her strong,

I fought and I pushed as my spirit allowed,

And at last one day I escaped it’s throng.

Now I have two beautiful students to teach,

The lessons once taught continue today,

May my teacher’s aplomb be found in my speech,

A classroom full of adventures each day.

My teacher, my mother, my best friend.