My Educational Path...Volume I

My walk through higher education was one full of turns and wayward trails. I graduated high school in 1997 and in the fall I started my freshman year as a Pre-Nursing major. My mother heavily influenced this decision, even though she'll tell you she didn't. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my classes and did well my first year but I had a nagging feeling that I didn't want to be a nurse.

My sophomore year I returned to school and progressed through the semester well but decided to transfer to another university for the spring semester because they had a better nursing program. Mind you, this was for a BSN so I had 4 years (8 semesters) to complete. So, second semester of my sophomore year starts and I hate the school! I can't stand being there and I want to go back to my old university but my mom told me NO 'because I made the decision to switch and I had to live it out.'

The next two semesters were torture for me. I lived for Friday afternoons so I could make my 2.5 hour drive back home and forget about school for a while. Now, I enjoyed my classes, I loved the clinical knowledge but I hated the clinical application and patient interaction. It just wasn't my thing. I liked producing results but I didn't want all the rigmarole that clinical application produced. But again, my mother made it very clear that I was going to become a nurse.

What was I going to do?