Leading up to this day I was a ball of nerves. Finally getting my feet wet helped to calm me down somewhat but there's still the labs and clinicals and that oh-so-important first exam that looms overhead to keep the nerves on high alert for a while. Yay.
In the fast few weeks, I have been trying to get a few fun things in before class starts. Ive been zip lining, visiting with friends and family, and this past weekend went to Louisville, KY to help my sister move. Its been a lot of fun and has helped me keep my mind off the inevitable.
Of course all of the fun culminated in to either getting a cold or having allergies flare up. Im banking on the second one since on top of everything I haven't been able to sleep well lately. I also strained my left upper arm on Sunday night bringing my bags in the house. So with all of the excitement of going to school already wreaking havoc on me, I woke up Monday morning bright and early completely miserable. My left arm was screaming, my nose was burning, and it was hot and stuffy. Happy Monday!
I got to Westshore about 1.5 hours early. On most weeks this is going to be the time when I get my lab practice in but since we haven't had lab yet, this is not an option. So instead I sat and did some reading to try to get ahead a bit. Finally everyone else started filing in around 6:20. I recognized a lot of people from orientation and/or the various nursing Facebook groups. I always feel creepy saying, "Hey don't I know you from Facebook?!" I felt at a disadvantage since a lot of the other students already knew each other from taking the pre-reqs at Tri-C. While I took the chemistry at Tri-C, it was all online so not many opportunities to meet people.
What we used to call "Syllabus Day" back in the day, always sucks. This one was a little extra excruciating since the instructor had to go through basically the same information twice since there was a possibility that there was someone taking only 1300 or 1450. We did get to touch on some material from the books and even had some time to meet some of our classmates as we broke off into groups to discuss what our personal nursing theory was. It was nice to get to meet some people, even though Im sure it will take a while to remember peoples names.
Today is the first day of lab. Wouldn't be too nervous if it wasn't for the fact that I forgot my stethoscope at home. Ugh. Our instructor called tonight's lab "Bed, Bath and Beyond" so hopefully I wont need it. Something tells me though that this lab will not be anywhere near as fun as the store (just got a new 20% off coupon yesterday! Cant wait to use it!)
Good luck to everyone else who is starting their first semester as well as all of you starting semester 2,3, or 4!
