I'm not going to lie. Even though it is only the first week of the fall semester and all I've really studied is the syllabus for my nursing courses, I still feel a hint of pride whenever someone calls me a nursing student.

There's nothing quite like wearing your uniform, scrubs with a badge on the shoulder. When I squeeze myself into it at eight in the morning, I feel like someone for others to look up to.

Pride is just one of the perks in nursing. If you have any nurses in your life, you might have heard how rewarding and interesting a profession it is.

You may have also heard that nursing is very challenging. And the path to becoming a nurse? Also very challenging.

Even before welcome week, I heard seemingly hundreds of "spooky stories" about the nursing curriculum. I've even had people in the medical field telling me, left and right, how difficult studying to be a nurse truly is.

Clearly, as I'm still enrolled in my university's nursing program and am, in fact, attending my next nursing class on Thursday, the possibilities didn't scare me off. However, it's impossible to ignore the fact that the workload will be overwhelming at times, and I may need help to get through it successfully.

I think that when things get tough in education (whether in high school or higher education) we tend to forget one thing: we freaking love this stuff!

Nursing is important to me and has been for many years now. I love Human Anatomy, Chemistry, and science in general. In fact, during high school, I studied a lot of it in my spare time.

Still, when things get overwhelming, and you've got a thousand reminders for homework upon exams upon quizzes blowing up your iPhone, it's hard to focus on the big picture.

What's the big picture you ask?

Every one of us chose to be here. We chose to attend our institution and study our subjects. All of this hard work is because we want it.

So remember that when things get tough, and you can't bear the thought of studying for another midterm after the last four, keep in mind that you want to be here.

See college work as something you get to do, rather than something you need to do.