It's been a while

Wonderful blog of mine, I have not forgotten you.

I'm frustrated, burnt out and so very desperate to not have my stomach in knots.
I'm one week away from taking my first HESI. I've lost 5 months in the past 8 weeks due to the never-ending stress that comes along with nursing school. General ed. courses did not prepare me for the critical thinking aspect of performing well on practice exams. My wonderful instructors have used the metaphor of the phoenix rising from the ashes to provide hope to those of us that have little or no nursing/medical experience. I do not feel like a phoenix at this moment, but I definitely have hope and believe that something good will come out all this. I'd like that something good to be a wonderful career in nursing. I don't expect my nursing education to be smooth ride to the finish line. I know and understand that nothing good in life comes without a struggle, nothing good comes without sacrifice and commitment.

Life for the past few months has centered solely around nursing textbooks. I've lost track of the number of books that have piled up around my study room. Some have plenty of post-its sticking out from every other page, while others are sitting in mint condition, awaiting their turn for assault with a highlighting marker pen and sticky-tabs.

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There are a handful of unpublished posts from 2009, one of which includes the topic of creating a 5 Year Life Plan. I've just finished reading over it and am thinking that maybe I should give the idea some consideration. Not to say that I wouldn't like to set goals for myself for the upcoming 5 years, it just seems a bit unrealistic for some odd reason. Possibly because the past 5 years have not played out as I had once planned. Life is just not that predictable, but maybe setting long-term goals shouldn't be such a scary topic. Yet, I've hesitated to create a list.