Monday, December 20, 2010

Graduated Nursing School--Finally!

So this past Friday, I graduated nursing school! I was extremely excited for this to happen. Most of this month has honestly been surreal to me because of being so busy with everything. I have been wrapping up nursing school, attending paramedic school, working full time hours, and trying to maintain some kind of social life! It makes me happy that it is the end of another chapter in my life though.
Graduation itself was a very memorable event. My friends Greg, Tayten, Bud, and Tara all came down Thursday night and spend the weekend being with me. I was very happy they were willing to make the trip down to see me. On Friday, my Grandma, mom, and sister all came down to spend Friday and Saturday with me. Also, to add to the excitement of all this going on, I was also moving into a new apartment! The apartment is in Washington city, it has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and I moved in with a friend of mine. To say the least, the weekend was very busy, but I was able to make a ton of memories and have a lot of fun. After the ceremony, we all went out to eat dinner as family and friends to a local Mexican Restaurant. Then, my family went back to the hotel in St. George, and just us friends all went to Mesquite for the night!

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Walk Beside Me....

This past weekend I have had kind of a constant reminder of a particular theme. This idea that I have experienced started on Friday night. This particular night I was spending time with an uncle who was having some marital problems and we were out driving around trying to solve some of these issues. As the conversation progressed, we started talking about me and my nursing education (my uncle is a medical doctor). He started to ask me a lot about how school was going and how proud he was of my hard work and diligence the past few years in my college education. He proceeded to give me a lot of much needed encouragement that I have been needing to keep working hard in school. We discussed particular medical topics I was learning about and he gave a lot of suggestions to be successful.
It was at this point I realized another important life lesson. The lesson is that people who are in a position of higher ground to another individual should walk beside those people and guild them along. This can be in any arena of life, professional or personal, younger or older. Simply looking out into the vast population of people that surround you, it should not be hard to find someone you can "take under your wing". What better opportunity do we have in humanity than to save another soul, or at least better their life to some degree?
For the majority of my adult life, I have felt an ethical responsibility for this kind of compassion. We are all here for the same purpose, to achieve the same objectives. So if someone is struggling or misguided, shouldn't it be our responsibility to help redirect our fellow brother? A famous LDS painting depicts Jesus holding a sheep in his arms. This painting represents that Jesus never rested until every single sheep in his fold was accounted for and safe. If we are to be followers of Christ, I feel we should have this level of care for those around us, especially those we love.
This fall I will be graduating college with a two year degree. I have been attending college now for a few years, and in those years I have learned a few things. My fondest memories of college are the times when I have taken a pre-nursing student who did not have the slightest idea of where they should go in the education and helped guild them in a direction that I learned was the most effective. This sometimes took place by simply giving encouragement after helping them with a difficult science topic. At times I think people need to hear that more than we think, a simple "keep up the good work you are right on track". The weight of such a comment can be extremely motivating when it comes from someone who is looked up to by another, as in the case of my uncle and I.
So in conclusion, it would be my hope that we can all pay a little more attention outside ourselves and find someone to reach out to, even if its a brief moment, and walk beside them for a little while. For we may never know the significance a few steps in life may mean to someone who has a friend who has chosen to walk beside them.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

First post

I am not too much of a blogger, but I thought I would start it up this year and blog about things that are important to me. I most likely wont update it as much as my best friend Tayten does, but I will do my best to keep things up to date!
As you can see from my profile information, I am a senior nursing student going to Dixie State College in St. George, Utah. I love health care stuff, thanks to a lot of members of my family being in the medical field. I have been here at Dixie since the beginning of last year. I can't believe a whole year has already gone by! The time here has been great, where I have been able to meet some truly amazing people. St. George has some really friendly people, and the church here is very strong. There hasn't been many times where I haven't felt welcome here. Its pretty cool.
Well I there isn't a whole bunch more I want to say in this post other than to express how grateful I am for the friends I have. Today I spend about 3 hours writing letters to my friends who are on their missions. I realized just how blessed I am to have the people I do in my life. Several of my friends I grew up with from childhood and am still great friends with to this day. Others I have picked up along the way and have truly changed my life. People like Ryan and Tayten and Behr (Drew) and Skipper who have helped me along the way to become the person I am today. What a great influence they have all had on me! I am lucky to have the family I do as well. My Grandma was the one who raised me, and she did a darn good job of it! I am also greatful to my little sister Aleesa who has lived with my Grandma and I for the past year. She has taught me a lot and is a very fun person to hang out with!
So the point being is that I feel strong about the idea we should all take a minute to overlook the bad in life and recognize all we are blessed with. Heavently Father has given us more than we even imagine! If I lost any of those important people in my life, I know it would be the hardest thing I would go through. I love them so much! Just as important however, are those people all around us who we may not know or talk to. I think there is significant value to everyone no matter what our initial judgements may be. So get out of your comfort zone and talk to people you don't know and see what you can do to help them out. There are to things I want to say about this. The first is a quote I have heard in the past that seems meaningful to me. It goes something like this: be kind to everyone you see and meet, because you never know what kind of battle they are facing in their personal life. Wow, isn't that powerful? I think its very true. The second thing is something a ward leader taught me, he taught me the AWARE message:
A-Always
W-Watching
A-And
R-Recognizing
E-Everyone
So when you see someone sitting by themselves or you know you haven't met a new person in your life, take the time to do it....it just might be the highlight of their day!

Thats all for this post. Hopefully I will have more in the near future!