Starting this January, we’re inviting you to come on a little journey with us and meet a new friend of ours. Our new friend is like many of you-or at least in a place where many of you have been in your lives. She is a new nursing graduate. She has experienced the dizzying highs and the devastating lows of becoming a certified, scrub-wearing, coffee-guzzling, bedside healthcare provider. Now, without further ado, we’d like to introduce you to Joye:

The date is May 18, 2007.

Pomp and circumstance, thousands of adoring friends and family, the faculty. Yes, it was my graduation from nursing school and the beginning of terror for the general public (just kidding, of course.) My name is Joye and I am a recent graduate. What you are about to read are my adventures in nursing. Everything you read is true. The names and places have been changed to protect the guilty.

Of course, all the fun didn’t begin when I got the RN tagged to the end of my name. Oh no. The fun began when I added NS (nursing student). I must take you back to the very beginning. I ask that you keep all arms and legs inside until the ride comes to a complete stop.

Now, it’s two years earlier. It’s spring.

I have had just about enough! I am so ready for Spring Break. Just one more mid-term and I am free! No more books, no more lectures, no more labs, just some sun! I can already feel the warmth on my face. Ready or not, here I come! Margaritas, sunglasses, and a few groovy clubs. Anything is better than mid-terms. I am also waiting for my letter of acceptance to nursing school. The application deadline was last semester. It has been over three months.

It is five minutes later . . .

I arrive home. Finally a letter from the university! I can’t do it. I can’t open it.

For more of this story (plus a whole lot more!), please visit our site.