It is so good to hear from you, and with solid advice and a good perspective to boot. Guess it makes sense, given your current track. I don't know half the shit I need to as a nurse yet; they say it takes a good five years before you can really even consider yourself a novice in the field. I'll get there, though. In the meantime, jams are forthcoming at some point. Hope your education is going well- breaks are not a bad thing. In retrospect, wish I'd taken one. How long you have left?
It was kind of unwilling, but at this point it's a good 4 months. It's been inconvenient and has kind of messed with my projected timelines, but it's tough to write a thesis on equity and inclusion when studying led to me excluding myself from my own life and my own relationships. Hardly a great place to write from, you know? As for how long, I don't know. I just have to write the damn thing. Man, that is a huge deal to set yourself on a path where you are helping people on less than great days in their lives. It's even bigger to realistically look at how much time it will take to earn the competence it takes to deal with that capably. Positive self-perception is huge in contributing to feelings of belonging in general and if you're really serious about being a nurse, then finding places where you can get acknowledgement will be crucial to the concretization of that identity. Build those relationships where you can, and if building those relationships is difficult, that's not necessarily all on you. There's a lot of research on mentorship being done these days in employee success. Are there opportunities for mentorship in your professional context? Anyway, I hope it gets better man, sorry it was a hairy one today.