January 2010- Let the studying begin!

I was so excited to take classes I genuinely had an interest in! I only took 11 credit hours the first semester back into science courses but man did it kick my bootie. For one, I really need to learn to get more guidance before I jump into classes. Here is the thing Physiology is BIOL N217 and Anatomy is BIOL N261. So, naturally I assumed Physio came first. As it turns out it’s a VERY bad idea to take Physiology before you’ve taken Anatomy. Where is the do-over card when you need it? I went from international business, studying maybe an hour for a test to studying up to 15 hours a week before a test for Physiology. That doesn’t include class time, lab time, and tutoring 4 hours a week on Sunday. (I know that some people study more than that but it was a huge shock to me coming from hardly ever studying). Hey Carissa, maybe if you’d studied like that for Macro you’d have done well in there too.

Bygones.

Despite the fact that I felt like a total failure after nearly drowning in Physiology I maintained that I wanted to do something in the medical field. This is where the true, change-your-degree-a-hundred-times comes in. First I decided on Clinical Laboratory Science, I thought it would be super cool to look at specimens under a microscope on a daily basis and have literally no patient contact. Then I got scared when I realized I’d have to quit my job for a whole year to finish the program so I re-evaluated. I killed so many trees printing out degree requirements for everything under the sun that had a science base. Sorry environment.

Then I had this bright idea. Pre-Med. Ok so maybe if I’d decided on this YEARS ago it would have been an option. But come on, I’m 27 and would like to have a family someday before my eggs die. I knew that just wasn’t possible if I devoted myself to Med School at this point in my life. Would it have been fantastic? Yes. Other things, life in particular, got in the way. Questions arose, what if I don’t get in, how will I pay for it if I do, how do I pay for anything if I get in I can’t work, what if I can’t hack it, what if I change my mind AGAIN, can I handle the demands of a residency program working 80 hours a week if I want to have a baby????

Ultimately I landed on nursing again. I could finish my first Bachelors degree in ANYTHING and then apply for the accelerated program. I did have several of the pre-requisites finished so it all I had to do was apply when I finished my degree. I looked at 2 schools. The one I wanted to attend would cost an additional $50K for 16 months. Let me just say here, I’m not one of those kids that got lucky with a scholarship because I homeschooled, my parents didn’t have the means to pay my way through school and I missed my chance for that anyway when I moved out at the ripe old age of 18. So you can imagine I have a little school debt looming already. I also didn’t think I would be happy being a nurse. No disrespect to nurses because I have several friends that are AMAZING nurses and love what they do but I just don’t think it was for me. I have my personal reasons and it has nothing to do with the profession itself.

So what to do……