Back when I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with my life after college, I had a lot to think about. Did I want to sit at a desk all day? Did I want to work in labs? At that point, I only knew that I did not want to be sitting at a desk all day, every day. I told my mom and she started listing of different occupations that I could pursue.

Pharmacist? No. Teacher? No. Nurse? Maybe. And the more I thought about nursing, the more I fell in love with the profession. I found something that would allow me to help people, but what finally convinced me was when I had a surgery two years ago.

I remember sitting in a chair waiting to go to the surgery room, and I was terrified. This was the first surgery I ever had and I did not know what to expect. The nurses came in and talked me through everything they were doing from putting in the needle for the anesthesia to how I was going to feel when I woke up after the surgery. They were so kind and knowledgeable and they helped me not be so nervous.

After my surgery when I thought back, I realized I wanted to be able to do that for someone else. To be the person to soothe their fears. Later when thinking about what I wanted to specialize in, I realized that the people who might need the most soothing are young kids. That is why I want to be a pediatric nurse.