I am 37 years old, Dave is eight years older than I and Alexis is 5. She is the apple of our eyes. I graduated from nursing school with a diploma in 1982, just after high school. The ladies auxiliary of the hospital where school was based honored me with a scholarship to provide for dormitory and tuition expenses of the three-year program. I was really fortunate to get that scholarship. Always felt like someone up there was looking out for me. (Sure wish I could remember that more often---wouldn't that be a stress reducer, to remember someone else is in control.) I was one of those typical middle class kids who would be getting a loan to pay for college had it not been for the scholarship.

Nursing is quite a profession. Sometimes I feel so frustrated about what we do to one another (professionally) in the name ofgetting through the day, I could just scream. Then some days I feel so much love and happiness in my heart for helping someone feel better I could cry. This goes for the professionals and for the patients. I have asked myself more than once why did I choose to be a nurse. (Reader, I'll bet you never have. LOL LOL LOL )

My professional career was short lived in the hospital. Not my cup of tea or coffee. Then went into the long-term care experience. It is a great place to work. As a charge nurse, when a team can be formed with nurses who will work with the CNA's, boy oh boy, can we give great care. The residents look so good and smell so good and feel so good. Their families are happy when they come to visit. The residents gain. No…. everybody gains. Then you have days when you are short of help and the administrator doesn't think you need to have that many aides on your unit. That is when the experiences of long term care can weigh on you.

There is another field of nursing that is quite exciting. This is the Insurance Nurse. By using our education and clinical knowledge, we assist insurance companies in the claim process. That was a great job. As a Case Manager of Workers' Compensation claims, I learned more in that job about people that any other job in my life. We know the "doctor language." We can translate for the patient, the insurance company and the employer. What a fantastic experience at age 25. It was really a great job.(Bruce, if you ever read this, thank you so much for the job.)

Then we have the arena of Public Health. A "govmnt job." "Close enough for govmt work" Have you heard about that one? What a phrase!!! That job lasted six years and just ended a month or so ago. The job was "managing" an outpatient pediatric primary care clinic for Medicaid kids. Would have been a much better experience except for the fact that my husband is Presiding Commissioner of the County in which we live. And the health department was a City-County health department. Oh brother. I will stop there. That was the worst part.

At the present time, I am enrolled in 12 hours this semester and will finish the BSN in 1999. My family will be happy about that. (Me too!!) I am not working outside the home.

Being a nurse is an honor. Being a part of the Nightingale Network is an honor. Sometimes we lose sight of that fact when we are bickering amongst ourselves and putting our coworkers down, we are participating in self-defeating behavior. Not good for the patients or us. And if you decide to not be a part of that "yucky" behavior, then you are ostracized. Kinda sucks. Are we not grownups or what? I found the Employees Emotional Bill of Rights the other day. I wish I had found that several years ago. Then we have the issue of horizontal violence. It's real.

To all the readers of this page, nursing and non-nursing, I would like to give some words of advice that has helped me a great deal. It is only in the last few days that it has finally sunk in: Don't take yourself so seriously. We always have a choice.

Believe me, I am the world's most serious person. There are some serious issues out there. (I don't want the two to be confused) A favorite issue for me is how do we rid the world of child abuse? How do we get all the people to understand how important our children are? Some of the people in this world just don't get it. I never realized until I worked in that "govmt job" and I became a mom what children were all about: Our future.

Peace to you and those you love.