back to school

Oh how fast the summer flies! Today marked the beginning of another semester at school. I've been going to Weber State since fall 2004 and it holds a lot of memories for me, and a lot of "first days". 

• I remember my first day of college 6 years ago (will it be a lot harder than high school?)
• I remember my first day of nursing school 4 years ago (can I really hold someone's life in my hands?)
• I remember my first day of online classes 2 years ago (how do I take classes and not go to campus?!)
• I remember my first day of grad school 1 year ago (grad school, what am I nuts?). 
• I also remember my first day of teaching 1 year ago (can I really teach students and help make them nurses?)

Going back to school is always so nerve-wrecking. It's a time of mixed emotions when I go through periods of self-doubt, perseverance, anxiety, sadness and determination (and of course, happiness when the semester ends!).

I'm very excited to go back to school (more than I realized until I logged in to my classes today.) I'm ready to get back into the routine, but more importantly, I'm ready to be done which is making me more determined to just stick to my school work and finish.

I'm also very excited to teach again. I won't meet my students until next week even though they started today as well; however, that was my choice. The first week of nursing school is so over-whelming that I wanted to wait until next week to introduce myself and give them their clinical schedule and assignments. They will be a little less overwhelmed and hopefully retain more of what I tell them. 

Teaching helps me with my school work because it reminds me what I'm going to school for. I want to teach nursing! I can't wait until somewhere between weeks 8-10 of the semester. My students will look up and me and the light bulb will go on. They will have that "a-ha" moment that makes teaching worth while! They will realize that all of the information we've been learning each week correlates and that we scheduled the way we did for a reason. They will realize how the nursing process actually works and how it applies to nursing! (Yes, there is a defined process for nurses and nursing). They will remember why they went to nursing school, what a great job nursing is and how wonderful it can be!

Happy first day of school everyone!