The best way to win a fight is to know your opponent. My opponent: Nursing School. She is a five semester, five round battle each is harder than the next but this first round was a doozy. I've come out the other side of this fight bruised and beaten. Maybe this will help you prepare for your first fight with her, Here's how our first round went down.

They warn you, 100 times over they warn you. It's going to be hard, well, of course, it's going to be hard its nursing school. You don't want just anyone doing it. But no amount of waning, no amount of caution can prepare you for the fight that is your first semester. In the beginning, it's not so bad, sure she's intense and intimidating but you're a great student and it's all new and seems fun. It's not easy but it's manageable. You get your white coat, you learn how to actually do vitals, which at the time seems really cool. Its like simple sparing moves you've done a hundred times, flash cards, quizlets, color-coded planners. All the usual tactics seem to work then she takes her first swing.

Exams. Nursing school exams aren't normal exams. Nursing school exams have the uncanny ability to make you feel as though you know everything and nothing all at the same time. You know the signs, the symptoms, the medications, forwards and backward, so you thought. That's when it really begins.

What you've been doing isn't working, isn't going to work. There are exactly 24 hours in the day and at least 6 are spent in lecture or lab, that means if you sleep the absolute minimum and learn to eat from the coffee shop and vending machines you get at least 12 hours to study and live life each day. Which is not enough and you begin to get backed up. You have to start canceling plans, rescheduling everything, missing birthdays, and big games.

You think it can't get much harder but that's only the first month. You see she likes to knock out your friends first, knocks down your support system. Just be careful not to fall for this trick your support is there, and still cares, just reach out and they will be there. (I find it helps to prepare those around you for your fight before it really begins. Like warning on TV shows before graphic content, it doesn't make it easier but at least they're prepared for what they're about to see.)

While you're recovering from your first exams and trying to get your bearings, she really comes at you with a one-two. Skills assessments and clinicals.

Skills assessments are the most nerve-racking moments of your life (or at least that's what it feels like). They are your chance to prove you've been paying attention, you've listened, you know what you're doing. It is the best feeling to prove that you are capable of doing things, to prove you are worthy.

Now clinical's are the real deal, the patients are real, their health problems are real, their care is really your responsibility. It's literally terrifying, like a small child that's learning to walk on a floor full of nails. One wrong move and you're toast. It's also pretty amazing, you learn to communicate with your patients, you learn not to be afraid to ask them the awkward questions. You see more full moons in one day than anyone could have prepared you for. You learn to be a nurse, to care for people's needs.

Right as you begin to feel comfortable then she comes at you again, with a sucker punch. She gets your right in the gut with concept maps. They are hard and fast and you don't see them coming until bam suddenly everything you've learned now has to be applied, like really applied, like applied on paper.

You'll spend hours trying to figure out what to write, how to write it. Nursing has its own language of special abbreviations, acronyms, and phrasing for just about everything. Your first draft is horrifying, ugly, grossly wrong, and yet at the same time, you love it like a child.

You spend hours upon hours working it to show it off only to have 3/4 of it single line marked threw with an initial, date, reason, and time. (If you know, you know) Your final draft, that however is a thing of beauty. That is where most make their first good connecting swing, a right uppercut to the jaw that blows her back.

As you celebrate your success to date and feel as though you may actually make it out alive, she comes at you with a real low blow. Final assessment validations. This is the moment where an entire class heck every class for the entire semester culminates into a single validation. A single 20-minute session that requires you to remember every assessment literally from head to toe. It's doable but it requires intense concentration, memorization, and focus. Then you're done. Well not done but you at least get a timeout-Thanksgiving break. You can sit a breathe but don't relax too much, because when you come back.

Finals. The ultimate be all end all. This is her final attempt to knock you out. She's done this 1000xs before but you, you're still brand new at this. Finals will take every ounce of you. You will lose sleep you will spend hours going over and remembering everything from the semester.

You will want to cry, you probably will cry and calculate your grade at least 30xs a day just in case something is added or you forgot a decimal. It won't change but you'll still check. Then you'll take your swings. Your final shot. You'll pass, heck you may do better than you've done all semester, all that matters is that you pass. You pass because failure is not an option.

Ding Ding, match over. You survived, she may have won but you live to go another round. It's Christmas now, so dust yourself off, eat some cookies and begin preparing for your next round, because the second semester is in the ring and she's waiting for you