My journey to being a nurse has been a bit of a roundabout and I could have saved myself a lot of time if I had just gone with it in the first place as I have ended up coming full circle back to nursing.
I was one of the higher achievers at my school and was always encouraged to be a chemist, a physicist or a teacher but at 17 and just finishing 5th year I knew I wanted to be a nurse and I applied to the university.
This is where things changed, I was offered an interview for the university and it was an open interview with around 50 applicants, we were half way through the day when one of the university staff told us to go and get lunch but to remember to take our folders with our certificates and documents etc so they wouldn't get lost. Myself and about 5 others done this and went off site for lunch and on returning we got yelled at by the head of the course saying that we shouldn't have taken our folders and it was delaying them with the interview. Being a shy, terrified 17 year old with no life experience all I could do was apologize and no one else stood up for us. I was subsequently offered a conditional place based on me passing my exams and by the August I had a place on the course.
But in the meantime I had visited another university open day with a friend from school and completely fell in love with the university and how lovely the staff were. The experience of one staff member had put me off, not only from the university but from the whole nursing course.
I ended up staying on for my 6th year at school and then started at the other university to do a degree in Biological Sciences which after 4 years gained me a bachelor of science with honours. I loved the anatomy and health promotion side of the degree and when I finished I decided to take the opportunity to travel where I worked abroad for a year and met some of my best friends. I gained more life experience in that one year than anything I had done before.
On returning to the UK it was right in the middle of the recession and I found it hard to get a job in science as a lot of funding had been cut, I worked a few retail jobs including a few years for my family wedding company, got married to my husband who I met in 6th year at school, had my 2 kids and bought a house. Then 3 years ago I had a bit of a crisis where I wasn't happy, I felt like life was going nowhere and that my brain was going to mush from not being used. As my husband had just signed up to do his paramedic training after being an ambulance technician for a few years he suggested that maybe I should go and do some more learning... I think he maybe had in mind a night class of something!
The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to go back to university to do nursing and after a few months and a lot of talking I decided to apply (at that stage I thought that they would turn me down) and after a few weeks I got an interview which went much better this time round! And in the September I started onto the shortened program for graduates with a brilliant group of about 30 guys and girls.
Fast forward two and a half years and I am now 5 months qualified and graduated a few weeks ago with a bachelor of Nursing with distinction and I love being a nurse!
If I had went onto the course at 17, I might not be the same person that I am today as I would not have had all the amazing experiences that life has given me and I certainly wouldn't have friends all around the UK and America so in a way delaying has likely made me a more empathetic nurse with a lot more life experience. I guess that sometimes even though you have a plan, life sometimes has a different path for you but if you really want something you will always find your way back.
Lynsay x
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