School started last week for me and I am already behind. Over 500 pages of reading in the first week. YIKES! I don’t know how I am going to accomplish that but I suppose Starbucks and I will become fast friends. I also started the class for whom I “TA” (teacher’s assistant) and that was FANTASTIC.
I am helping with a undergraduate pathophysiology class and these students are so smart and so excited about nursing. Its invigorating! I don’t have to worry that when I tell them a story they will roll their eyes at me or instantly get bored. They are riveted…makes me feel like a genius! ha! But really, I call it the “idealism of youth”; where no cranky charge nurse or condescending physician or abusive patient has jaded them yet, they are still full of optimism and hope that they can make the world better. I also forget how much I had to learn to be a nurse, how much I didn’t know when I started. For example, I said “ADLs” (activities of daily living right?) and they didn’t know what that was. I forgot the long and arduous path I took to get to this “RN” point. I really appreciate all the professors and clinical instructors who brought me through my undergrad…one slow, steady step at a time.
But really, I wish we could bottle their optimism and enthusiasm! How much happier would nursing be! So since I can’t bottle it, I just bask in their presence every Friday from 10 am to 1150 am and a little bit of it rubs off on me.