We, at Indiana University East, are about a month away from the end of this fall semester and if you are in the nursing program like I am, then it is becoming utter stress and chaos right now. This coming week consists of two exams, studying for those exams, a 4-6 page paper, two shadow health simulations that take like two hours each to complete, two lab documentations that are very thorough, a read and highlight important facts article, a worksheet that we have to turn in but do not get any points for, a presentation to get started and ready to present to my 44 student class, not to mention non-school related stuff like work and the Halloween holiday events coming up. If I do not make it through this week, I will totally understand why and now I think you will also!

I try to get the easier stuff done first that will not be as time consuming, but then those end up taking quite a bit of time to do anyway and sometimes you do not even get it fully done without little things getting in your way like bathing, eating, sleeping, work, class time, and other everyday life road blocks. You do the best you can. This is where time management is important. The only way I am handling all of it is getting help from my fellow nursing peers and mother, going week by week and day by day of stuff and how the finish line is so close. I feel that in order to succeed you just have to have a mindset that you have to get it done so suck it up and find the time to do it and then move on to the next thing, but do your absolute best with each assignment so you get good grades on it.

The assignments with little points or something you have to do each week may be annoying, but in the end they add up and you find out that they helped you pretty well. Therefore, just keep trying, going, and succeeding. You can do it if you think you can! There have definitely been days where I just wanted to quit while I was just starting out and not so far in that it would be a waste to quit, but then I think to myself that I have geared my schooling and classes for nursing since high school. I have put a lot in so far, so it would already be a waste to quit while I was ahead because I am halfway there. Therefore, as much as I want to give up sometimes because I think it would be nicer and easier, I WILL NOT. I have to keep telling myself it will all be worth it in the end.

The first semester is all the busy work like book work, practicing documentation, endless assignments that you do not think amount to much, and reacquainting yourself with everything deeper. Then my next semester, spring, I will be getting to go to the hospital a few times. My last two years will be harder but you get to do clinicals and be out in the workforce experiencing anything and everything, with the chance of going on a trip each year with great insight and experience. It will become more exciting and more fun. You just have to go through the "bad" to get to the "good" is how I see it.

I wrote this because I kind of just wanted people, especially my friends and family, to know what all I am having to do and maybe understand a bit more for when I say that us nursing students cannot have a "normal" life anymore or have a life at all anymore. We were told that for a reason. Now, after getting to see firsthand what they meant, I understand and say that to people now too. My life is centered on nursing school and all that comes with it...and a lot comes with it! It is definitely not easy for me seeing life and life with my friends continue to go on without me, and I only get to watch from the sidelines, i.e. social media.