To all my Friends and former Classmates...

I got this in a forward and thought it was very appropriate for the current situation.

"I Wish..."
For you, I wish good health
For you, I wish happiness and peace of mind
For you, I wish success in your personal life and in your career
For you, I wish the vanishing of hard feelings among family and friends
For you, I wish laughter and joy
For you, I wish a strong faith to carry you through the times that are hard
For you, I wish food upon your table and clothes upon your back
For you, I wish a walk in the forest
For you, I wish friendship, honesty, and fidelity with your mate
For you, I wish the hug of a child
For you, I wish the morning dew and sunlight
For you, I wish a bubble bath by candlelight
For you, I wish a good cry
For you, I wish the songs of a bird and a babbling creek
For you, I wish lessons learned so you will not make the same mistakes over and over
For you, I wish quiet times shared with the one you love
For you, I wish the innocence of youth and the wisdom of maturity
For you, I wish the experience of grass beneath your feet
For you, I wish the receipt of joy in simple matters
For you, I wish the fragrance of a rose
For you, I wish a heart that is at home
For you, I wish dancing by moonlight
For you, I wish the pleasure of fishing
For you, I wish a Mother's love
For you, I wish a good nights sleep
For you, I wish the laughter of a child
For you, I wish memories of days gone by
For you, I wish a heart nestled in acceptance with yourself
For you, I wish dancing eyes and a ready smile
For you, I wish compassion and understanding
For you, I wish the appreciation of a hard days work
For you, I wish safety at all times
For you, I wish insight
For you, I wish a spring rain
For you, I wish simplicity
For you, I wish a day of rest
but most of all I wish you love

FINAL

Today was it. My last final of my nursing school career thus far. From this point I can go forth, take the boards, and hopefully being practicing nursing. But first, there must be partying. This weekend it is not only is it mardi gras, but the beach house that we're gonna have is awesome. Whoo....party on boys and girls.

ALMOST...

Today's our last day of clinicals...for real this time. I'm seriously glad today's our last day of nursing school clinicals. Don't get me wrong, you couldn't be a nurse without the clinical experiences, but it gets to the point where you're just "free labor." Those classmates of mine whom work, like I do, feel the squeeze when we're doing clinicals on a unit and we know good and well that we could be getting paid to basically be doing the exact same thing. Now, I am all for building up rapport etc, but why would you choose to work for free at something that someone else is perfectly willing to pay you for ??? Ya...that creates a quandry about this last quarter of nursing school. They're trying to "teach" me how to "manage" multiple patients. Um ya, I've been doing that since January of 2005...Thanks to my experiences in the ER. I guess that's why I'm working there, because I'd rather work there for free "managing patients" than be doing "clinicals" supposedly "learning how to manage patients." Oy veh...we can do anything if we put our minds to it. Hmmm, only 4 more hours to go....whoo...calgon take me away. The end is so near I can almost taste it.

Sleep...

I, like my colleagues, have reached that point in our curriculum where all we really want to do is sleep. The clinicals that are supposed to "transition" us into "real" nurses make us want to take a "big fat nap." The phrase..."big fat nap" was actually coined and probably copyrighted by my classmate EC, but I've stolen it and made it my own. It's thursday...I have no clinicals today, yet I am awakened at 5:30 simply because my body is used to being awake at 5 a.m. to go to clinicals. Thankfully exhaustion won out and I fell back asleep until 8. Ya...8 isn't late enough for my tastes on my day off, and it's especially troubling when I'm supposed to work tonight. That's no bueno. I'm sleepy already...hence perhaps one of the reasons that I had that outbreak of shingles, but enough about sleep. I think I'm going to have to go find some before I have to go and get my SLP points DONE. Read aaron's column this week.....it's good for a laugh (www.aaronkaro.com ).