So I've made it through my first semester of nursing school! I thought it would never end. I questioned time after time why the hell I was doing this, it seemed way too time consuming. Then i read the chapters on caring in nursing practice. There were so many chapters on medical administration, assessment, catheter insertions as well as NG tubes, injections among many other skills we needed to demonstrate and perform without error. The unthinkable, I did it. I got through all skills. But it wasn't until we started clinicals when it hit me, and I realized that i really wanted so badly just to be around people. So this entry is a little snip bit of my time with my resident at the assisted living.
My second week of clinicals was a very eye opening experience. Prior to this I can't say that I have given the aging process as much thought as maybe I should. I am so focused on my immediate needs that I do not allow much room for future or perhaps the bigger picture of my life. Life is jumbled up into being 28 and it is hard to imagine anything else.
More intimate time with my resident this week most certainly broke through my very limited concept of this whole progression of the aging individual. My resident asked me questions about my life. She was genuinely intersted moreso the second week than the first, to get know me better. I desired the same with her. She seemed more comfortable and her voice more free and animated. She read me poems that she wrote earlier on in her life and I shared with her that I wrote music and poems too. I could see that sparked excitement in her, the commonality we shared. She shared with me stories of her husband and when they first met. She recalled the many times when she was so confused about her medical conditions that now make sense in her later years. She was told that she could not have any children and she has four. I can only imagine her at my age. A time of financial hardship. A time during war, during the Great Depression. A time where women had different functions and expectations as what is seen now. To have lived through so much and yet there is still more time, more time to rekindle spirituality whatever the means or becomes, more time left to still learn, to still read, to still write poems. She loves to read. One big thing that will stick with me now and forever was also the ability to see one who has aged as a prime example of the ability to cope through change overtime. The hardships and change of establishments and the vigor to share having been through it. So this experience was extremely thought provoking for me. I began thinking of life and aging and the process that is such a continuous phenomena. It brings hope to things unknown. It welcomes thoughts and questions to this process that seemed stifled by fear or just mere misunderstanding.
