[TRANSFORMATION]

Transformation [ˌtrænsfəˈmeɪʃən]

n

1. a change or alteration, esp. a radical one

2. the act of transforming or the state of being transformed

 

One day I was a student.  A couple hundred days passed, seasons changed and changed again…  I changed and changed again, but one day, I opened my mailbox and I became [insert well-deserved drumroll] a nursing student. 

My friends had already received their acceptance letters.  Mine came two days later.  Two sleeps felt like an eternity.  Doubt crept in.  I congratulated my friends and was truly happy for them while coveting their correspondence and when mine arrived I was on-the-fence about what it contained.  I opened it gingerly.  I skimmed as fast as I could.  I was in.  Now what happens?

What happened for me was the rest of the semester, a trip abroad, an accident, life-support, and recovery.  I gathered my supplies as quickly as I could afford them.  I bought books in lieu of all else.  65 students stepped into a journey of unknowns together. 

Five days a week our 2015 cohort shares space, ideas, thoughts and concerns.  We talk in depth about readings, lectures and videos.  Articles we saw, or radio interviews we feel compelled to share are passed around, facebooked, and bulletin-boarded.  But we don’t end there…  We share candid discussions about personal experiences, family concerns, worries about washing out of the program.  Our conversations and shared experiences no longer hover on the surface.  We are becoming.  Each day as we learn more about each other, we have the opportunity to learn more about ourselves and how we can support each other.  Little by little, we are transforming. 

Over the next few weeks we will move from being newbies in the campus setting to ‘student nurses’ in the field.  We will be carrying all of our strengths and skills with us as we practice, learn, grow and continue to transform personally and professionally into the nurses that we will one day be.