I am finished!!!!

I turned in my last paper to Vanderbilt on Sunday and completed my clinical hours last Thursday, making me FINISHED with graduate school!!

So, day two into being done with grad school- I am loving sleeping in, drinking coffee, going shopping, catching up on life in general (never mind having to deal with a crazy Amazon seller who wants to argue and debate that he did not LIE to me, which he did- Mike is now taking care of everything!).

Anyway, I first want to apologize for being out of the loop for approximately the past 13 months! My sweet friends and family have been patient with me for not being able to come to events due to school, work or clinicals (or being stuck in 2 hour traffic between home and Grapevine....minor details), and just being slightly absent in general from life. But that should change!

This past year was one of the hardest ones I have ever had. Not necessarily due to the difficulty of the school work, but trying to figure out how a) how to get back into the swing of school life, b) how to balance working full time, doing school work, being a good wife to Mike, and having a some-what normal social life, and c) FINDING PRECEPTORS. My goodness, that has been one of the hardest and most frustrating parts of school. There are not a lot of nurse practitioners who are willing to precept (precept= student-teaching), and when I did find one, they had already agreed to precept another student. Or they decided to move out of state a month before I was to start working with them, causing me to have to furiously find someone else and pray the contract would go through! Thankfully, everything worked out in the end and God provided me with a great last-minute preceptor who gave me the freedom I needed to build my confidence in my abilities.

I am so very thankful for my husband who was and is a constant source of encouragement- I can't tell you how many nights last fall I cried, wondering if I had made the right decision, if I could do it, if this was the right thing for me, etc. He was always consistent in encouraging me and pushing me to keep going. He always has a more positive outlook than I typically do and is good about reminding me that things will work out, when I don't think they will. (And they always do!).

I am thankful for my Nashville friends. I always looked forward to coming to Nashville to hang out with them- we've had some interesting experiences (surrogate exams, practicing our physical exam check-offs on each other, The Frothy Monkey, CMA awards, crazy Vanderbilt system, SATCO queso, etc). I am going to miss not seeing them every month!!

I'm also thankful for my Nashville hosts, Melanie (sweet roommate from college) and Julia (fun co-worker from back in the ER days at Children's), who very graciously let me stay with them during my weeks in class! Mel had a cute little baby during the school year and it was exciting to see Miss Kaylee grow!

Although I wasn't sure if this was the right path for me in the beginning, I am glad that I plodded through and completed the program and am excited about what the Lord has in store for me regarding jobs, etc. While being in clinicals, I have felt confirmation that this is the path the Lord wanted me to go down and I am thankful that He provided the strength to complete it!

Mike, my parents and I will be traveling to Nashville next week and Elena will fly into Nashville to meet us for my Pinning Ceremony (the nursing school equivalent to graduation). Since Vanderbilt only has one graduation ceremony a year, in May, we will most likely go back next May so that I can get hooded and officially walk. But, this upcoming pinning weekend is going to be a BLAST and I am so excited to show my family my "Nashville life!"

YAY for being DONE!