a bird's eye view//passion.

I know I am lucky to have found a passion so early on in life. When you are passionate about the work you do, it is true what they say about it never actually feeling like work. You look forward to getting up before sunrise everyday and going to sleep long after it sets. It makes you innately great at your job, if I do say so myself. I landed my dream job right out of college and packed up my whole life on the East coast, headed West and have never looked back. I spent my twenty-second birthday on my first real shift as a real neonatal nurse and at the risk of sounding horribly lame, I knew it was "the one" the moment I walked in to the unit. I was working at one of the country's top childrens hospital, surrounded by an incredible support system and exposed to so many critical cases some n.i.c.u. (nick-you) nurses wouldn't see in their whole life. It was an incredible opportunity that laid an even more incredible foundation for my whole life's work. While working in Canada the following year, I was horrified by many aspects of the healthcare. I felt like I was torturing my patients watching them suffer and began to lose sight of my passion feeling trapped in a system resistant to change (the founding principle of what makes healthcare the amazing field that it is). I came to a point where I either needed to quit nursing or do something about it. I thought about walking away, I honestly considered it to deter walking away from other aspects of my life, but I knew if I could get back in an environment that fosters learning and empowers nurses to make a difference, I would rekindle my passion. In hindsight, the year I left work crying every day only further paved the path my career is headed down and I'm very grateful for the time I spent and the people I met while being baptized by ice up North. 

They inspired me to dream bigger and I started applying to grad programs that would allow me to practice in an autonomous role. Hoping I would find out where my life was headed late spring, I started travel nursing this time last year and wow! what an awesome experience it has been! Working in state-of-the-art units with the most progressive approaches to medicine here in the Pacific Northwest, I have gained a wealth of knowledge, met so many great people and found temporary homes in many awesome places along the way {Hey there, Seattle!} Grad school is a hundred times harder than I ever imagined it to be and last semester I wanted to stay by the bedside, enjoy my 4 days off a week and find contentment as a nurse {Read: drop out} but I'm so happy that, with the gracious support of my friends and family, I stuck it out because this quarter has been amazing! I find my way of critically thinking changing as I prepare for my new role. I am synthesizing information that I never knew I never knew and it feels so fabulous! After identifying an "abnormal finding" last night on an XRAY the doctors had overlooked {silly residents}, I thought, "Maybe I can do this! Eff that. I AM doing this!!" I have a year left of my program and I know I will still need a lot of support along the way because there is A LOT to learn in the next thirteen months but after spending fifty-three hours at work, eighteen hours in clinical and an unmeasurable amount of time doing school work this past week and I'm still excited to get up at sunrise tomorrow to go back to work, I'd say my human soul is most definitely on fire. 

How did I get off on this tangent? 

My intention for posting tonight was to share this article with y'all! It's so true. I + love + it.

I digress. 

Go find your passion.