Growing up, my mom always tried to persuade me to be a nurse. Especially as I began high school, she would remind me constantly that nurses will never have a problem finding a job and that nurses get paid well. I would always tell her that I wanted to choose my own career, not follow a path that she laid out for me. Not only this, but nursing was and is known as one of the hardest majors out there and I thought I would never be able to push myself through it (especially because I could barely get by with a B in my U.S. history class my junior year). I fought her every time, without fail, that she reminded me that nursing was an "ideal career choice".

When it came time for me to choose a major and look at schools (choosing a major came before choosing a school for me), I took the time to reflect on past experiences with different careers. I knew that I could never be a teacher (major props to education majors). I also knew that I could never sit at a desk and work from a computer for 40 hours a week, and if you asked anyone who knew me, they would probably tell you that I have always been known to help people when they are sick or upset.

But there was one thing that really stuck out to me. I thought about when my Nanu was sick (we are a large Italian family and we referred to my grandparents as Nana and Nanu). For as long as I can remember, he was the one person in the family who always had health problems. Mainly, he would be in the hospital for his congestive heart failure. One summer, he had a heart attack while we were up at my cabin. My parents decided to leave my brother and I at the cabin and go to be with my grandparents. My brother and I got home once the weekend was over and we went to visit him. I was young, so of course being in the hospital made me nervous. He was in the ICU for a stretch of time. Every time I went to visit him, my mom, uncle, and aunt kept talking about a male nurse that would come in and check his vitals. He was always cheerful and made my Nanu's near death experiences not so scary to all of us. In a time of despair, darkness, and fear, he was able to make my family laugh and smile and ease away their fear.

Time went on, and both my Nana and Nanu passed away. They had their aliments and sicknesses to deal with, but every time they were hospitalized, there was always a nurse or two that were able to ease the fear and anxiety my family had, even if it were only for just a moment.

Reflecting back on this, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I love being happy. I love comforting people. I am a firm believer that making others happy makes me happy. I love to help people. I knew at that moment that there was no other career that I could ever want. I had an idea of how hard it was going to be as I watched my cousin, Angela, work so hard to get through not only nursing school but nurse practitioner school as well. Sure, the benefits of being a nurse are endless (good pay, plenty of opportunities to grow professionally) but I know that what I really looked forward to was to be the person to allow the sick patients and their families to see the light, wherever that light may come from.

Now, here I am, two months away from starting school for my dream career (by the way, thanks Mom). I have never worked harder in school than I have the past two years, and I know now that I will work even harder the next two years. But I also know that the work will be worth it.

I want to thank all of the nurses that have affected me throughout my life, but especially my cousin Angela, who is now a nurse practitioner, because you have given me such an amazing example to follow and my mom for putting this career in my head in the first place. I love you!