Coming Full Circle

In High School I volunteered as a Candy Striper at our nearest Hospital. I took great pride wearing my red and white striped uniform. Some of my responsibilities started with greeting visitors and taking them to patients rooms. It eventually grew to filing medical records, to helping with getting x-ray film ready and developing them. Unfortunately, life happens and forces you to make choices. I had to stop volunteering at the hospital.

As time went by, I got married and helped raise our four children. My husband's sudden illness and periodic stays in the hospital re-sparked my interest in the medical field. Under the circumstances, life has guided me back to making a choice in pursuing a career.

Today, my goal is to become a Phlebotomy Technician. A hope and dream of mine is to one day, volunteer with a medical team in a third world country. When I went back to school to get my high school diploma, I realized that those dreams and hopes of mine could become a reality. My dreams had wings and I felt like anything was possible; there was nothing holding me back.

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NOTE: This post has been sitting in my draft section in my potential blog posts and I am just now posting it. I started my Phlebotomy program last month in the middle of September and cannot believe how intense it is and I have at times wondered what I got myself into. The instructor told us that we will be done by and take our final test October 15th. I was under the assumption that it would be the beginning of December and didn't realize that time was apart of our clinicals. I am panicking! The two nights that we attend class each week, we go over a chapter review, then are given a homework assignment and with that will be tested the next night we meet for class. After the second class of the week, we have a little more time to prepare because of the weekend, but after the first class of the week, we are literally cramming everything into our brain. In the second part of class (which is a total of four hours) we head to the Laboratory and start drawing blood on each other. I am surprised with myself that I am not afraid to insert the needle but am afraid of failing. I mentioned this to my husband and told him that even if I fail at this, I think that it would be worse to have not tried at all. It is so hard to think that if I fail, I won't be doing something that I have envisioned myself doing for so long... I can see myself doing this! Last night, there was another student, who has seemed to me, very sure of herself. As we were waiting for the instructor to watch us begin our blood draw, she had a far away look on her face, finally made eye contact with me and told me and another student that she was scared. I was taken back because of the way she presented herself. I asked her what she was scared of and she said, "This class is just very intense and going way too fast." I said, "Thank You! I am feeling the same way!" In sharing, we all three learned we weren't the only one in the class feeling like this. I will just keep doing the very best that I can do. That is all I can do.

I still feel like my dreams have wings. I just have to accept that the wind will take them where it will.

*Candy Striper Uniform photo is from googled images