1-Year Anniversary

I cannot believe it.

One year ago I worked my last shift as a student nurse ... TIME FLIES!!! I never used to believe people when they told me a year was a short amount of time. My mistake.

I used to tell people that nursing school isn't something you do, it's something you survive - and I really meant it! It was a long four years full of readings, research, debt, papers, labs, late nights, early mornings, abbreviations, acronyms, hard science, memorization, word-play, philosophical thinking (and writing), self-reflection, bull-shitting, tears, joy, stress, love, and growth. You're taught to think in a brand new way and you learn skills you'll never need anywhere but at work. It spills over into every other area of your life - how you treat yourself and those you know, how you think about the world, how you make decisions - everything. It is hard freaking work and I remember it so clearly.

Yet, it feels like I blinked and a year passed. Although much has changed (new job [hell, a career!], new degree, new designation, new house, new plans, new roommates, new brother-in-law, new car) it feels like so much has stayed the same. Sure, I've grown up a lot in the last year (I had no idea how expensive it is to live!) but I don't really feel like I've moved all that far from where I was a year ago. I don't want to say it was a wasted year, because it wasn't, but I feel like maybe I should have gotten more done.

Perhaps I'm used to viewing a year as such a long period of time, when really the years fly by like credits at the end of the movie - you barely have time to actually even read them. Maybe I need to start looking at things in two-to-three years increments. Or maybe I just need to learn to accept that this is how life goes - flying on past - and all I can do is seize as many moments and catch as many words as I can.