DJ Becci, RN.
Hey-O! Just when you thought this blog was DEAD, I have resurrected it with a fresh post!
I feel like it’s been a couple years since I updated you all. A lot has happened since, and I finally have some free time (and the mental capacity/headspace) to fill you in on what’s been happening since fall 2021, so let’s kick this thing off, shall we?
I believe when I left things, I was taking pre-reqs in preparation for nursing school. Well, in the time since I have successfully: conquered said pre-reqs with my first ever 4.0 GPA on record (May ‘22), applied to and got accepted into UNC’s BSN program (February ‘22), graduated from said program (December ‘23), sat for and passed my boards (February ‘24), and secured a position in the new grad residency program at the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland where I had been working as a nurse aid since December ‘21. I’ll officially start that gig on February 19th. After two and half years of submitting assignments, replying to discussion posts, taking exams, going to skills labs and sim labs, working on countless group projects, and putting in 840 clinical hours - I now officially have my second Bachelor’s degree and an RN behind my name. Which is nuts.
Nursing school is nuts, too. It’s a competitive, white-knuckled rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows with a pretty significant workload that eats up most of your time both during and outside of your classes and clinicals. And it’s not just easy stuff that you can crank out in an hour. You were always having to comb through journals and databases and studies and research summaries to get it all done. The clinical prep was relentless, and there was never any mental downtime. You always had to be thinking about the next deadline and what ducks you needed to get in a row now so you were ready to roll when the next one came along. You were never not stressed. Up until nursing school, the only time I would ever openly weep in front of a group of people was at a funeral. During my peds semester, I got a $180 speeding ticket after a sim lab because the emotions of the day had caught up to me on the drive home. A song popped up on my phone that had me sobbing in my car so hard that I blew through a 35-mile-an-hour stretch of road going 65. Lol. I had my first panic attack of my life in third semester, midway through the program. There were weeks where I truly didn’t know if I was going to get everything turned in on time and days when I felt like I was in way over my head.
But -
For all the moments of stress and nerves, late nights, long shifts, and early mornings, it was also one of the most positive experiences. Truly. Someone shared a meme the other day of a happy, smiling succulent with text above it reading: “Let’s root for each other and watch each other grow!” Nursing school was like that for me. I’m sure that every cohort says this, but mine was one of the best. Everyone was so helpful. And kind. And looked out for each other. If you were having a bad day, they’d help you work it out. If you missed class, they’d share notes. Our WhatsApp chat was like a never ending scroll of encouragement. (With a bit of venting and a few well-penned haikus thrown in from time to time.) We were a second-degree cohort which meant that most of us had already done the whole college thing before and were back for round two. We were a mixed bag of teachers, administrators, accountants, medics, bartenders, researchers, and others; some of us were married, had kids. One of the gals that sat behind me in class delivered her baby during the break between 2nd and 3rd semester! (She was superhuman.) A few even had grandkids. All of us plucked out of the air by fate (and the director of the program) and bundled up together with the shared goal of wanting to be - of all things - a nurse. I don’t know. I feel like I could tell you guys a billion stories about nursing school. About what I learned, got to practice, experienced in clinical, the people I met. Maybe I’ll save them up for the next time we see each other. You can play 20 Questions at your own risk. Lol. I should probably write them down somewhere before I forget the details and they’re lost to time… For now, I suppose I should start wrapping things up.
We had our pinning ceremony the day before our commencement. It’s a nursing specific event to celebrate our cohort and recognize all our hard work while reflecting on all that got us to that point. I had the good fortune to be picked as one of the speakers for the ceremony and I just remember looking out at the crowd of faculty, family, friends and then at the front two rows where my classmates were sitting - and just feeling so proud. Over the course of 18 months I had gotten to know those folks in the first two rows - we’d been through so much together - and I was so happy for them. For us. I was pretty set on not walking during commencement, but the carpool convinced me otherwise. In the end, I was glad I gave in because I think a lot of times we end up convincing ourselves that the things we’re doing and the milestones we’re achieving aren’t a big deal. Especially when it’s not the first time it’s happened. I was telling myself that I’d already done this before with my first degree so there wasn’t a point in me doing it again, but the truth is that hard work is always worth celebrating - at any age. And I will always be thankful to my cohort for reminding me of that
At any rate, I hope you’re staying warm and well! Enjoy the pics of UNC’s Cohort 1223 and a fun, bonus video of my pinning speech :)
(Click on the thumbnails and hover over the photos as you scroll through to generate the captions.)
A good portion of my pinning speech captured by my mother-in-law. I had told everyone that I’d always wanted to do a stand up set - lol - that’s where the video picks up. I couldn’t squander a captive audience! I said that I had timed it all out at home and I would be able to fit in both a mini set and a sincere note.
