Post-GRAD … um … depression?

Whether you’ve been in school for two years or three, or six like me, school has played a HUGE, monumentous, gigantor role in your life for that amount of time. Even if we had the joy of a long break in between, we were still in “school mode” thinking about what would come next, what we needed to study in the interim. I’m thinking about the day after graduation when I wake up and I don’t have to crack open a book — or even more — the day after taking the NCLEX. In the days when you don’t have another class to go to.

I’m so looking forward to having the summer off before my residency starts, but part of me is thinking that there’s going to be a few moments, be they short or long, with some sadness.  It’s all going to be over (at least unless grad school is in your nearing horizon). It’s super exciting, but that’s a whole chunk of my life that has just suddenly ended. There’s a loss that’s experienced in some way. And for some, I’m sure it’s more significant than others.

Nursing school has been our baby, consuming all sorts of time, energy, love and frustration.  Nurses — when you graduated how did you feel?  Soon-to-be graduates, what are you feeling about your up and coming freedom? I’m a little ambivalent, not sure what the future’s going to have in store emotionally. I’m just hoping for the best and counting the days!