Procrastination

I think that I've always been somewhat of a leave it until the last minute kind of gal, but this is getting ridiculous. I just haven't been able to bring myself to work on my essay to apply to OHSU. It's due on January 15th, so I still have some time, but I wanted to get it done before the next term starts and as the winter break is cruising along way too fast, so is my inability to sit down and actually work on writing the thing.

I did have one session of brainstorming, which went ok. But I need to do another session or 2 of more brainstorming and then actually get to writing it. I think I'm a little intimidated by the one page limit that I must cram the answer to four, count them four, questions. I hope it's ok to single space because that's what I'll be doing. But come on Cheryl...lets get a move on!

Maybe I need to think of some kind of reward that I can give myself after I finish the application. But then again, getting into school would be a huge reward so that I would be able to move forward towards a new career and get out of having to wake up at the butt crack of dawn and go listen to depressed and suicidal people talk about their misery. Now that I think of it, I think I'm feeling a bit motivated to write... but now I have to go to bed so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Nursing or PA?

Lately I've been having a lot more doubt about whether I want to pursue nursing or being a physician's assistant. In thinking about nursing, I've always had the goal of moving towards nurse practitioner. I like the idea of having that level of knowledge and responsibility, and hey, the money is appealing as well. But more and more people have been talking with me about PA and the prospect sounds interesting. I was talking with my mother about it, since she's a nurse practitioner, and she said that PA is more technical than NP. The other difference is the amount of schooling. I would have to do the 18 months of accelerated BSN, then 2 (or more) years to become a NP. PA school, while super intense, is 2 years. I would have to take the GRE though to get in, and to go the nursing route I wouldn't have to take it until I got the NP part, and I'm not totally certain that it's required for that.

I think I'm going to go ahead and apply for OHSU's accelerated BSN, then see if I get in. If I don't, I'll have more time to look into different options. If I do get in, well then I'll have to decide what I want to do sooner rather than later.

Finals week results

Well it's over. I made it through the fall semester and while I haven't gotten the *official* word on my Human Development grade, I'm about 99.9% sure that I got an A which means I got A's in both my classes this term! I worked my ass off for my Anatomy/Physiology grade and all that work finally paid off. I was kind of nervous midway through the term, but was able to turn things around and do well. I have to say that it was the hardest class I have ever taken in my life. Next term I'll do the 3rd term of A&P and then I'll be done with that requirement. Don't get me wrong...it's all super interesting stuff that I'm enjoying learning, it's just hard with the pressure of wanting to get an A to be competitive in the application process for school.

Speaking of school, I'm thinking more and more about Physician's Assistant school instead of nursing. It's a super up and coming field and would be really interesting work with a good deal of responsibility. The only thing I don't know about is if my crisis line experience would count as medical experience in the application process. I guess I'll have to talk with someone at one of the schools to find out.

Work is getting to be so taxing on my spirit these days. I don't know if it's because of the holidays that everyone is freaking out, but the calls I've been getting these past couple of weeks have been super intense. I just don't have the energy to give to people anymore like I used to. It's hard because I'm trying to leave this field that I'm in now, but have to stay in it for now to pay my bills. I find that I just don't give a shit about the majority of the people who call in. Perhaps this is self protection against the stress of the work? Hard to say, but it's really hard to drag my ass out of bed at 3:30AM to do the early bird shift at this job. I keep telling myself, "but I can knit in between calls"! But this is getting to be not enough to compensate for the misery I have to hear 32 hours per week. And I just picked up a bunch of shifts over the holiday break to make money to pay my tuition in January. Why can't I just win the lottery? Oh yeah, maybe it's because I never buy any lottery tickets!

Finals time

OK everyone...I'm in the middle of finals so that's why there's been no posts and won't be any more other than this super short one. I'll be done with all my school related stuff at the end of this week and then you can look forward to vacation time musings about where to apply to school, timelines for applying, my registration nightmare with Nutrition 225, what's going to happen next semester, and how I'm staying sane through all this.