What's New...

So, its has been more than a "little while" since I posted last; over a year to be exact. Looks like I have a lot of catching up to do. 

Over the past year I have worked very hard to finish nursing school at UAB. From January to August that is basically all I've been doing. I busted my butt all through the summer and I ended up graduating on August 3rd. Although the SON did not give us a traditional graduation ceremony, like those held in May and December with caps and gowns and all those goodies, I enjoyed it all the same. It was a smaller ceremony with only the SON August 2012 class and instead of ugly green robes we were able to wear nice dresses, which was definitely a plus. I was NOT looking forward to those ugly robes. We were "pinned" at the ceremony by our fellow nurses and instructors with our pin that say "BSN RN". Afterward we celebrated with a wonderful dinner at Micheal's with my closest friends and family. Nursing school has a way of bringing people together. It's something that creates a bond between people when you "suffer" through it together. I am so blessed to have been able to have the friends I did through school, I honestly don't think I could have made it without them and I miss them everyday!

Also, after graduation I had an awesome celebration party with my family and a fantastic trip to coast with some of my friends. I will blog about both of these adventures later on since there are lots of pictures to go with both of those. 

So, I guess since I am graduate everyone is wondering the same thing... "Do you have a job yet?" 

Unfortunately I do not have a job right now and it sort of makes me sick. I thought I would begin working a LONG time ago. I guess I underestimated how hard it would be to find a job. I had always been told that "they are always hiring nurses" and "there's always a need nurses" which is probably true but it is just very hard for a nurse with no experience to get her feet in the door. BUT, I am still trying hard. I have applied for about 25 jobs in the hospitals in the Birmingham area; primarily focusing on openings in Women's health or Pediatrics. I don't have very many contacts within the hospital settings but I have been trying to use the few that I have to the fullest. I am continuing to pray every night that God would place me in the perfect job for me and where He thinks I can do the most good for others. Hopefully something will come my way soon. 

I will, of course, try and keep my blog updated as new things happen in my life so until next time......

-Meagan

 

The Fun of Fall

Hello Everyone! It seems like forever since I have posted. (I guess it kinda has been)

So unfortunately my life hasn't changed very much since my last post. I am still going to school 4 days out of the week for lecture and clinical rotations. I know I mentioned before in my last post that none of the classes  I am currently taking are ones that I am very interested in. Although I hoped I would end up liking them, I actually have not. Overall its been a boring sort of semester. But I would take boring any day over "extremely busy, don't have a life or time enough to breath" semester like the summer.

So far my clincials have been pretty uneventful as well. I am basically just trying to get those done. I thought I would enjoy Psych clincials more than I have but they actually make me sad so I haven't liked them very much either.

But then again there is always room for improvement. Maybe things will get better toward the end :)

So other than school I have just been enjoying time with Aaron and time with my family. Aaron has been helping coach his younger brothers football team this year and I've really been enjoying the games on the weekends.

We have also, of course, been enjoying Alabama Football this fall! Boy do I love my team! I promise I love them win or lose but it feels much better to be winning :) Roll Tide!

 So to wrap it all up, anyone who knows me knows that October is one of my favorite months because its my birthday month, my sisters birthday month, and Halloween, which is one of my favorite holidays. Although Mallory's birthday has already passed we still have some celebrating to do. We are having a birthday dinner together with our family to celebrate both of our birthdays on Sunday. So excited :)

I should have some great pictures from the party to share in my next post, but until then I will leave you with a picture of my Baby Love; little Jay.

See you soon!

The Future

So now that school has started back across our area everyone is getting back into the swing of things including me. I have class lectures on Monday and Wednesday at UAB and then I have a clinical rotation for community health on Tuesdays. Where we go on Tuesdays varies because it is community so we go where ever the community needs volunteer nurses. So far it is has been a sort of boring experience but hopefully it will get better the more I get to volunteer!

But with schools starting and college classes beginning I can't help but think of Tuscaloosa and the University of Alabama. I miss it very much. I think to myself  what I wouldn't give to be a student on that campus again. I know that it is hard to understand and its even harder to explain. I feel like my heart lies there; NOT at UAB. I know that I am getting a wonderful education by very skilled and intelligent instructors but I can't help but wish I was at UA instead. I honestly feel that it was where I was meant to be. It is everything that I dreamed it would be in high school and more. I loved it. Sometimes I feel disappointed in myself for not trying harder while I was there. I thought I was doing the best that I could and maybe I was but today it feels like I could have done more and maybe I would have gotten in. That phone call from their college of nursing offering me a spot was one the happiest and saddest days of my life because I had to tell them no.

Don't get me wrong, I am very happy I got in at UAB and I have made wonderful friends and I know I am receiving a great education but doesn't everyone think about what might have been? What would things be like? What would it feel like to walk across the stage at Coleman Coliseum and get my diploma? I will only know what it feels like to wear an ugly green robe for UAB.

Its hard to fully explain how I feel and maybe it doesn't make any sense but lately it has been weighing on me and I needed to vent. Thanks for listening! ha

But one thing I can still look forward to from UA is football. This Saturday is our first game against Kent State and I couldn't be any more excited! RTR!

----post again soon

The summer is ending...

As much as it saddens me to say I guess I must face the facts: Summer is ending. Mallory will starting her senior year tomorrow morning at SCHS and I will going to back to UAB next Tuesday to begin my 3 semester of Nursing School.

Although the thoughts of wearing coats, boots, and sweatshirts seem so nice I know it will be long time before the state of Alabama cools off so I think I'm better off not getting excited about that part of fall. But I am SO excited that Alabama football will be beginning in less than a month! I'm so ready for some games and some football domination :))

This fall I will taking 3 lecture classes and 2 clinical rotations:

Community and Public Health Nursing- along with a clinical

Nursing of the Psychiatric Mental Health Client- along with a clinical

Nursing of the Older Adult

Although I am not especially interested in any of these fields I am hoping it will still be an interesting semester!

I will, of course, keep you updated as I go!

Here are a few pictures from a spur of the moment beach trip with Aaron's family to Orange Beach. We had a great time! :)

Love the view from my beach chair!



Much Needed Update

Hi, Everyone! It is way past due for an update so let me fill you in on the new in my life! :)

(Although there isn't much to share)

I completed my summer semester of nursing school and I couldn't be happier to have this one under my belt. It has been very hard to stay motivated this summer and to top that off I had one of the hardest classes I have ever taken in the line-up. Difficult is an understatement.

I had absolutely no idea how hard Nursing School was actually going to be. Yes, I had heard what upperclassman were saying about it, and yes, the prerequisite teachers told me it was going to be tough but there was no way that back then I would have gotten through my head what they were trying to tell me. Beware to those of you planning to take this path, just as everyone told me, I will tell you; Nursing School may be the hardest thing you ever do but it will be worth it in the end.

I ended this semester with these grades:

Maternal/Newborn    B

Maternal/Newborn Practicum    Pass

Nursing Informatics    B (an 89 I might add. UGH)

Pharmacology    C

These are not the best grades I've ever earned but they will get me to next semester which will begin on August 16th.

I will leave you with this picture of possibly the cutest giraffe in the world. I found this on pinerest.com and it has made me giggle for days!!!

 

Until next time......

Long Time, No See

So it has been a pretty good while since I have updated. I am sorry for the few of you of do still read my blog, haha.

I have been really busy these past few weeks with school. I didn't think it was going to be bad only going to school 3 days a week this summer but it turns out that even though I wasn't at school I still had alot of work to do at home. It has been very hard but it has been a little fun too!

So I decided I would do a list of 3 things that are new in my life since I posted last:

1. During my clinical at Brookwood Medical Center I got to witness my first live birth. I saw a young mother give birth to a beautiful baby girl. She had a very short labor, only lasting around 3 hours, so I was able to observe the whole laboring process from beginning to end. It was a beautiful experience and for those who know me and are wondering, yes I cried.

2. Aaron and I have celebrated 3 wonderful years together. I find it hard to imagine my life without him in it, and sometimes I wonder how I ever lived before we were together. We have such fun when we are together no matter what we are doing and this may go without saying but I love him.

3. My schedule of only 3 days of class a week worked out well in the fact that I got to go on my family vacation. I was so afraid that I was going to have to miss it but I was so blessed that it fell on a week when I had a Tuesday clinical and when I was off the following Monday. It was awesome! We had a great time! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

This was John Thomas' first beach trip and boy was he the cutest beach bunny!

This is Will and me playing Cornhole. We were high-fiving because he had rung the hole. "Cornhole!"

And yes, this was my embarrassing moment when I tripped over a hole in the sand and busted it.

"Aaron, lets do a prom pose!"

Take one....

Take two... haha

An absolutely wonderful trip! Can't wait until next year! :)

Learning Lots...

I have now completed 2 weeks of my my 9 week summer session and it is impossible for me to express how much I am learning. And the most interesting thing is that I am loving almost every minute of it. I say almost because I am not enjoying one of my classes in the least bit (Nursing Informatics- I don't care at all about research; I just want to care for people) and there is always studying to do and I never really like that but Maternal/Newborn has be glued to my PowerPoint's. To be honest I was hoping that this would happen since this is going the area of nursing I plan to join and I am glad that I love it!

I have done one round at the hospital but unfortunately I was not on a Labor and Delivery, postpartum, prenatal, or NICU floor; I was on the women's health floor caring for women who had recently had a hysterectomy or cancer patients with breast or ovarian cancer. Not very fun. But hopefully next week I will be on a good floor!

I hope everyone had a wonderful memorial day, we sure did! Here are some pictures of the balloon fight we had at my Nana's!

I think we were going over the rules here and I'm not sure what Will is telling us but it looks like we don't understand!

Yup, they both got me!

Then I got Brittany on a sneak attack!

"On the count of three say hot dog. One, two, three HOT DOG!"