Getting To Know The Student

The alarm set for 6 goes off, slowly widening my eyes I approach my dresser. Filled with scrub pants and tops, throwing on whatever is first in line; I reach for my toothbrush and mouthwash. With my eyes half open half shut, I drive through town arriving at my patients’ house. Preparing myself for either a busy and exhausting morning or an undermining hour and a half. That’s not even the worse part. After that visit that usually results in drenched scrubs and a messy head of hair, I have to rush back to the dorm room. With adrenaline pumping and sleep in the back of my mind I literally jump in and out of a bone chilling cold shower. What seems to be a disaster of a day set up for me is started off with a boring class filled with mindless chatter about whatever the course is about. Not even a pretty classroom filled with posters about grammar, or a family picture of my professor, or even a stupid quote from some famous guy; it’s just a room entrapping me with white walls.

The funny thing is all the while I’m scribbling down notes spat off from some voice, I’m dreaming, almost fantasying. Not about boys or lunch, about different classrooms. Classrooms filled with the smell of hand sanitizer and almost a deafening silence while students try to insert IV tubes in the veins of nursing manikins.

I know it sounds ridiculous to complain about school, considering it’s a place of sanctuary for me. But I can’t help it, I thrive to be a nurse. Nursing classes are all I want to attend and learn from. But for now I will remain Within White Walls.