Nursing School Fashionista

For most people my age who work the year after graduating college, the transition is marked by a dramatic change in self-image. Gone are the days of sleeping in until 9, 10, or even noon, and shuffling to class in yoga pants or sweats. Those lucky enough to land a professional job start to accumulate trousers, crisp shirts, and smart blazers. One of my best friends, who spent 90% of her time in yoga pants or jeans and a hoodie at Brandeis, now looks like she walked out of a Banana Republic ad. Even her going-out jeans are darker, more polished.

I knew for a long time that the dress code for nursing is based primarily on functionality. My nursing student uniform, navy slacks and a white button-down with our school's seal, also serves a symbolic function by marking us as student nurses. Sadly, it was one of the less aesthetically pleasing uniforms I had seen. I decided that I definitely wanted to have some cute summer clothes to wear to class, and stocked up on bright tees and a floral wrap top.

While I had been trying to find a new pair of jeans, I got an email from my Health Process and Assessment instructor with the course syllabus. Realizing that the lab portion of the class involved performing (and receiving) thorough physical exams, a new pair of yoga pants began to look much more practical than a new pair of jeans. This was how I ended up getting stretch capri pants at Target.

In a month, I can picture my friend sailing into work in a few weeks with her elegant Longchamp bag over her shoulder, while I show up to class with a stethescope and sneakers. But at least my stethescope and blood pressure cuff will match.

Fall Semester Goals - Revisited

In terms of academic goals, I've found that staying on top of my written work has not been very difficult — I already had developed a "system" for budgeting time for doing readings, research, and writing papers. What was difficult was budgeting time for studying Organic Chemistry and Biology. I realized, perhaps a little too late, that studying the week before an Orgo exam was not effective. In order to really get the material, I had to practice it until I had dreams about reaction mechanisms. It is rather similar to learning a foreign language — you don't learn just by hearing, but by writing and speaking everyday, until the rhythms of the language become natural.

Organic Chemistry has been a difficult class, probably the most difficult class I've had since AP Biology in high school, but not necessarily a "scary" class. While many of the nurses I work with respond to the phrase "I'm taking Orgo" as if I said "I eat cactus for breakfast," and describe Orgo as a sort of necessary evil, I've found the material quite interesting. While I can't find a direct connection between Orgo and nursing (other than the pictures of pharmaceutical compounds in some of our exams), I've decided that Orgo being a requirement for some nursing schools is enough of an "ulterior" motivation. When I need a "boost" while studying, I try to imagine getting a first set of scrubs for nursing school. It helps.

So does cooking. While emotional eating is not recognized as a positive habit to develop, I've found that when I'm in a studying/working rut, stabbing dough with a spoon is surprisingly cathartic. Grocery shopping, which I know most adults view as a chore, is relaxing for me. The half hour walk to the grocery store is a good time to just plug in to my iPod, and after being on a meal plan for two years, it's a lot of fun to decide what will be in my kitchen. While most of my non-"quickie" cooking has been desserts (pumpkin pie, brownies, cookies, apple crisp), I've found that that's the kind of cooking I can get excited about. It's a good thing I spend so much time walking to class/work. Otherwise I think this kind of cooking would have serious consequences.

Perhaps I should start venturing more into entrees. I've already done mushroom quiche and vegetarian chili. Today I made fried polenta with cumin and pepper, which was very yummy, but perhaps not something I should make on a regular basis. So, my next unofficial cooking goal: practicing recipes that don't involve copious amounts of sugar or butter/oil that aren't chili.

Goals for the Near Future

1. Figuring out my academic plan. I started working towards a Judaic Studies major, but am also very interested in Health Studies (my school offers a major and minor program which combines sociology courses on American healthcare and hard sciences). Since I'm most of the way through the Judaic Studies major, I either want to minor in Health Studies (still giving me space for elective courses) or squeeze in the Health Studies major (which includes a supervised internship).

Since I'm a second-semester sophomore, I have to figure this out fairly soon, which to some degree also means figuring out how I want to relate my studies and extracurricular activities to my post-college life (scary thought!)

2. Figuring out this summer. Even in high school, when we had (what felt like) very long summer reading lists and volunteer or paid jobs, summer was a time to just be. All of a sudden, I'm on a hall where people talked about summer internships at the beginning of fall semester. This summer looks like it will be a mix of summer school and volunteering. So, unpaid work will come my way, just not the kind that many liberal arts school students view as the magical pathway to finding a Meaningful Job with Purpose.

3. Finding time for a painting class!!

Last fall I took a beginning painting class, introducing myself to the special noxious smell of oil paint, the challenge of not getting your every possession paint-stained, the odd sight of a student walking around a classroom shirtless (I guess normal shirt-wearing rules are different during non-class hours?), and the weird feeling of standing in a room with an unclothed person (in this case a model, obviously) when you are fully clothed.

On different type of note, though, after drawing in pencil/pen and with Photoshop for several years, with only occasional dabbling in watercolor and acrylic painting, it felt very empowering to mix colors rather than just click on them, to build an image in soft colors rather than harsh lines. It was easier to make a mistake and just paint over or around it than to erase a pencil line and be haunted by its faint ghost. After all this, it was very sad to not find any art classes that fit into my schedule for this semester, so I'm hoping that something will pop up junior year.