Why I Became a Nurse

My past jobs have always involved fast thinking, working on my feet, and odd hours. I have felt most engaged and motivated in positions that allow movement and require critical thinking and that do not confine me to a desk for a prescribed number of hours. Working in the restaurant industry scratched that itch, for a little bit of time at least. I enjoyed engaging with a variety of people each evening and managing multiple orders and working with people in lots of different roles. There were personalities to navigate and preferences to discern. And I got to move around while doing it. 

But after years working in the restaurant industry and seeing the devastating effects of alcohol on a person’s body and brain, including my own, I knew I needed a change. Sensing this, I got a job in a hospital working as a tech on a med/surg floor. The population we served was largely underserved people, often experiencing homelessness and struggling with addiction and trauma. My heart has always seemed to have a wide open space for the underdog and this experience was no different.

In these patients I saw parts of myself mirrored back: lonely, broken, desiring love and safety and a chance to be seen for who I was. I realized how easy it was for me, for whatever reason, to care for this population and to be a part of their healing process. I discovered that I felt more at home in this environment than I had ever felt on a restaurant floor because I felt I had the power and gifts to impact their experience in the hospital and to be someone to listen to them and to reflect back to them their worth. I also discovered that caring for those in the population was helping me to heal and grow as well. 

I saw the damaging effects of alcohol on the bodies of those I tended to and how it affected not only them but their loved ones as well, if they were lucky enough to have people in their lives who visited them. It was through this exposure that I decided to stop drinking as I saw no benefit and only destruction. That decision has changed my life and brought clarity and purpose to my work. 

And in this personal change my capacity to care and learn and stay committed to my work blossomed and I felt more myself and more like I had found my place to think critically, and work on my feet, and have an unconventional schedule. So I made the next steps for nursing school and to pursue a career in nursing. In this career I hope to continue to affect change through not only traditional means of medicine but also through compassion and bearing witness and holding space for those who do not always have others in their life to do that with and for them.