I walked and got my diploma!
My favorite girls came to watch me graduate! Here's one of them:
The amazing people pictured below (minus one-she disappeared after we walked!) are my friends who helped me get through endless tests, assignments and discussions. Thanks girls!
More friends!
We all felt like dancing, but Allie had the best moves by far.
My family, love them so much!
My other family, love them too!
My best friend. He is so amazing and the no. 1 reason I made it through school. His words of encouragement and love made all the difference.
We had a graduation dinner and my classmates nominated me to speak, Tyson recorded it, but it was pretty noisy and I need to figure out how to clean it up so you can hear me. Until then, here is my graduation speech. I love Happy Endings!
Celebrating the End
Up until my Junior year in high school, I had wanted to be a veterinarian. I took a lifeguard course and often times would go in early to practice the rescue techniques we had learned the day before. One such morning, a young man who was swimming laps had a heart attack in the pool. Along with my coach and other classmates, we performed CPR and followed the protocol until the ambulance took him to the hospital. Despite all of our best efforts, the young man passed away. That incident changed my course in life. While I still maintain a love for animals, I knew that I needed to first help my fellowmen. Nursing was the career choice that would allow me to serve others and affect lives.
Some of you may have had a similar experience. I think the realization that we have all come to is that when you are a nurse, everyday you will touch a life, or a life will touch yours. That is the honor and privilege of being a nurse. We have all taken different paths to get here, and here we are, the end of a journey, ready to sign "RN" at the end of our name.
Thank you for allowing me to share some thoughts with you tonight. Some of you know me quite well, and to others, I may just be a face. So, for a little something about me- I. Am addicted to Twilight. And as I started thinking about things I could possibly say tonight, a passage from those books came to me. The main character is graduating and she has this to say:
"I was glad things could end on a good note. Because it was an ending, no matter what the valedictorian had to say about commencement meaning "beginning" and all the rest of the trite nonsense...we were all leaving something behind us today."
As we complete this portion of our lives, it has really struck me that this is an ending to our formal Nursing education; an end to something that has so wholly engrossed our lives. I almost felt like running around in a panic with a little cardboard sign proclaiming, "The end is near!!!"
And I thought well, that doesn't necessarily mean that an end has to be a bad thing. After all, who is going to miss the 4 a.m. panic attack of, "Oh crap. That was due. YESTERDAY." Or logging onto WSU online countless times a day? Forking over your piggy bank to tuition? Stress about deadlines, tests, and ridiculous discussions? I, for one, will NOT miss any of those.
But there will be things that we will miss. Things like, using our brain and increasing our knowledge. Some may even miss having something to complain about. I think for most, we will miss the sense of community. Even though school is an individual task, we have rallied together to make sure no one was left behind. We will miss the friends that we have made. but thankfully, email, cell phones, and Facebook can help us stay better connected.
As we close this chapter of our lives, we get to take some things with us. One thing is the starched stiff uniforms we get to keep, but mostly, we will keep the numerous memories we have made. From the early days of LPN school, to the Capstone experiences in our RN program, each day spent in class, on the road, in the testing center, was a memory and one day closer to our goals.
We are a week away from achieving a major goal in our lives. Graduation. Think of everything that waits for us! There is so much that we are going to be able to do with our time! And freedom is so close. We might finally get around to the home projects that have been waiting for awhile. We might plant a garden, take a MUCH needed vacation, or simply spend more time with our families.
Think of what each of you are going to do as a nurse! Some of you are going to help patients through surgery, others might help patients recover on a med/surg floor. Some will help cancer patients through the most difficult days of their life. There are so many options for each of us, who knows where we will end up? There is one thing that I do know. I know that each day, every one of you are going to give your best to your patients. You are going to touch lives, you are going to change them, You, are going to make the difference.
This is the end of a very significant phase in life. After jumping through so many hoops, maybe we almost felt like we might end up as circus performers instead of nurses. But, we're here. We are at the end. We have achieved a phenomenal goal in life. I know I wouldn't have made it here without the support of my family and without all of you. Music often speaks to my heart, and I feel that these lyrics from the Broadway musical Wicked, are for all of you.
"It well may be, that we may never meet again in this lifetime, so let me say before we part, so much of me is made of what I learned from you; you'll be with me, like a hand print on my heart. And now whatever way our stories end, I know you have re-written mine by being my friend. Because I knew you, I have been changed for good."
Friends, let us look forward to the future, live vibrantly in the present and celebrate the end! Congratulations Weber State University 2011 Nursing class!!! We did it!!
