To begin sharing my nursing school journey with you, I thought it would be good to start off from the very beginning. It all started in January of 2016; I was in my last semester of my four-year Chemistry degree and was thinking about options for my future. I knew that once I finished my schooling I would need to enter the real world, hopefully get a job in my field and begin adulting. As you get to know me, you’ll find I’m the type of person that never passes up an opportunity and is always planning for that “what if” moment. As a backup plan in case I didn’t enjoy working in a lab, I thought I would apply to nursing school.
The school I was enrolled in had a few options; a 4 year BSN program and a 2 year Accelerated BSN program. The Accelerated BSN program was intended for those who already had one bachelor degree and had most or all of the nursing school prerequisites already completed. One evening my cousin and I were talking about how amazing it would be to one day become Nurse Practitioners and open up our own clinic. On a whim, we both decided to apply to the Accelerated BSN program before the February deadline.
My cousin had already been graduated from University for a few years with a bachelors degree, so she heard back from the school right away regarding acceptance. I on the other hand still had to submit my final grades in April before they would even consider me. Fast forward to May 2016, I finished my 4-year bachelors degree, went on an amazing week long vacation to Cuba with my best friends, and walked across the stage a week later to receive my diploma! My grades were submitted, but I still hadn’t heard anything back from the School of Nursing.
After graduation I got a job working in a lab, putting to use some of the skills that I learned over my 4 years at University. Months went by and I still hadn’t heard anything back from the School of Nursing. One day I decided to go into the Registrar’s Office and talk with the person in charge of the Nursing School applications. To make a long story short, he told me they were still considering everyone and I needed to take 4 prerequisite courses in order to start the program if I was to be accepted. I had two options at this point; 1. Leave my full time job to return to school from September-December to take these 4 courses in hopes that I would be accepted and could start the nursing program right away in January. Or 2. Stay at my job, hope that I just didn’t get accepted and maybe try again the following year.
Like I said in the beginning of this post, I am not one to pass up an opportunity and always like to keep my options open. With that being said I went with option one and decided to leave my job, go back to school in September and hopefully get accepted into the Accelerated BSN Program. September rolled around and I went back to school to take Anatomy, Physiology, Microbiology and Nutrition. My cousin who was already accepted was taking Anatomy and Microbiology with me as well.
A few days into school I got an email from the guy in charge of admissions to the Nursing School. He asked me if I was taking all of the prerequisites that I needed in case I was to be accepted. I told him yes, and he told me that I was at the top of the waiting list. I still didn’t have a seat in the class at this point, but it gave me a little more hope and some reassurance that I did the right thing to leave work and go back to school. About a week later I had a voicemail from the admission guy, wanting me to give him a call back as soon as I could. I remember thinking this could be it; this could be the moment I’ve been waiting for since May. I finally called him back and the first words he spoke were, “Congratulations Blake, you’re in”. I couldn’t believe it!! After so many months of waiting and not knowing what was going to happen next with my life, I finally heard the words I’d been longing to hear. After a little celebration dance, I called my family and gave them the good news!
I finished up my prerequisite courses in December 2016, had a nice long holiday break, and was preparing to start the Accelerated BSN program in January 2017. After 100+ applications to the program I was now 1 of 15 people ready to embark on the journey of a lifetime!
