As I just graduated about two weeks ago, I am now faced with the "Where are you going to school" and "What's your major" question each and every time I see someone I know. Also, each and every time I answer with a smile on my face saying "nursing", I get "That's really hard" and "That's a lot of blood". News flash, I KNOW. But see, when you choose to be a nursing major it runs deeper than either of those statements, deeper than you know.

As I set off to school I know in fact, as well as any other nursing major, I am not prepared for the amount of work. I will spend countless hours prying my eyes open to read my whole anatomy text book cover to back about sixteen times. I will waste millions of needles in my four years learning how to stick a dummy in my labs. I will do plenty of looking at myself in the mirror with a big goofy smile on my face when I get my first pair of scrubs. I will stay up all night sick before I get to touch my first live patient in lab. I will not sleep a wink before I take my nursing exams. Through my four years with all the hard work I will need to put in and all the sleepless nights, I will have a burning fire of motivation for what I do.

Once I graduate, I will be working in a hospital. I may be in the ER room rushing people in quickly and lodging something out of their throat to save their life. I may be a surgical nurse, helping a doctor on an emergency procedure to make sure a patient doesn't lose too much blood. I could be in a pediatric hospital, holding the hand of a child in need as I give them their daily medicine. Maybe I will even be sitting at the bed next to someones mother, father, grandparents, whomever, making them smile towards the end of the journey we call life. I will be working twelve hour shift, with killer feet and back aches, and huge dark circles that will totally not go with my makeup on my days off. But guess what, that is okay. Maybe sometimes I will have someones blood all over my cute scrubs or some other bodily fluid that most people would pass out at, but guess what? That is still okay.

Through my hard work and studying, and all the blood it will all be okay. It will all be okay because I will be saving lives, making lives easier in the hospital, catching something before it spreads, helping possibly one of your loved ones. Theres never too much studying to save a life, never too much blood to save a life. Now all that, all of that gives all the reason to study, all the reason to have hands full of someone elses blood.