Growing up I wanted to be a…
I can finish that sentence so many ways. While growing up in Germany, I wanted to be a professional soccer player because that’s all I knew… Germans are big into soccer, or fussball, you know. I’ve been playing the game since then and am now in a senior league, but that’s a whole other story on how I’m feeling about my age. 34 and playing in a senior league. Oy! Anyways, shortly after relocating back to the states my interest shifted to American football and I wanted to play so bad but my father was afraid I would get hurt. I was a late bloomer so to speak, so it was probably a wise decision on my dad’s part to keep me off that field. So from there, my interests would change like the wind. After seeing Rocky IV, I really wanted to be a boxer, or was it that I wanted to be Sylvester Stallone? Then came ‘Top Gun’ and I wanted to be a pilot and on and on.
How did you know you wanted to become a nurse and when did you realize that was the career path for you? What drove you to make it where you are today? From what I’ve heard, nursing is a wonderful profession and is very rewarding. Plus, you won’t have many worries in terms of finding a job. However, if you are a travel nurse, you may find that last statement a difficult one to swallow as of late. That too, can be a subject of further discussion.
Anyways, I’m curious as to what drove you to become a nurse because of a story I read coming out of Arizona. A young woman is graduating this year from Arizona State University at the age that most people are just entering college! She is the youngest person to ever graduate from the university’s nursing program. She’s the “Doogie Howser” of nursing. You can read the article, “Teen is ASU’s youngest nursing-school grad” here. It’s quite the story and I believe her reasons for becoming a nurse are on point with what many others would probably cite as their reasons for doing so as well. But, do you think she’ll have all the emotional tools necessary for dealing with countless issues that arise for a nurse? This is what I’m interested in. I have no doubt in my mind that she’s a bright and gifted person, it’s just at that young age, has she experienced enough in her own life so that she can relate with patients and families? I don’t know. What do you think?
