Getting a Move On

This here, is me attempting to not wait so long between posts (lol).
You know, I've been home for only a few days now, and already it has been affecting my mood some what with mixtures of being happy and being upset. Remember how I told you before of my little '94 Honda having a good run...yeah...it has has officially been deemed too unsafe to drive. There's a pretty bad brake issue and unfortunately, every car service we go to want me to pay more to get the brakes fix than what the car is worth. This means that I will unfortunately have to revert back to my high school days in terms of sharing my parents' cars to get to-and-from work. Lovely.

In addition to that, I'm currently getting my RN license transferred from Florida to NJ, and apparently that's going to take anywhere from 8 to 10 weeks. I'm glad it's in the process of transferring now, but unfortunately quite a few hospitals in the area are telling me that I cannot apply until I have the license; luckily, there are select other hospitals are saying it's okay to apply while it is in pending status. Needless to say, it seems almost as though things have gone from bad to mediocre for now, but I have been applying to any place I can get for now. Because of my car, a few of my financial plans had been set back.

What financial plans?
1. Purchase a car at least 5 years age.
2. Save some money to make my first funfilled trip to my Alma Mater's Homecoming.
3. Purchase a new iPod.
4. Purchase a new laptop.
5. Continue to save up for apartment.

So yeah, those first two plans have officially gone down the drain now that I really have no money...as of yet. I am quite fortunate to say that Target took me back and that the next two weeks from now I'll be making some form of income again--even if it is only part-time pay. As of now, I'm hoping that I'll be able to save up enough money to purchase a car no more than 10 years of age, and that homecoming trip may be cancelled all together.

But, hey, who knows? Maybe I'll be blessed enough to hear back from some of the hospitals that I've applied to thus far. Least I forget to mention that that are certainly far more options for places to work here in NJ than where was I was located in Florida. My chances of beginning my RN career have definitely increased also with knowing the fact that I have many connections here that are more than willing to assist me.

Aside from financial matters, I got a chance to visit my cousins yesterday. Mind you these cousins are more like brothers and sisters to me since I was baby sat by my aunt on a near constant basis. The last time they had seen me really was last Christmas. They couldn't make it to my graduation unfortunately. But you know, it felt good to be missed and to come back to open arms. It further encourages me to get a move on with my life and my goals. And while I may not be making too much money at Target, it will be enough for me for now.

Well, gotta get a move on. I may not have a car, but that's not going to stop me from getting what I need to get done today. I used to walk everywhere when I didn't have a car, guess it's time to take that up again.

Peace and Love.

New Beginnings...

Woah...I didn't realize how long it has been since I last put something up here. Sorry for leaving you readers hanging. Allow me to update you though.

I did indeed graduate with my BS degree from Hampton University on May 13, 2012! And it was a glorious day to behold with my family and friends. Following that, I moved down to Florida where I studied for the NCLEX-RN exam and as of June 30th, I became a licensed RN in the state of Florida. Why Florida? Why did I not move back to my home state of New Jersey? Simple. Following my graduation, I was proposed to by my boyfriend of three-and-a-half years and moved down with him to start our new life together. Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out and I have recently moved back to my home in NJ.

What happened? Well, nothing too serious. For both of us, this was our first relationship, period: no previous relationship history. And we got serious fast, perhaps too fast for comfort. I have only told a few handful of people the details of everything. Though I should make sure to mention to you that I did not want to break up...but hey...you can't control someone else's feelings especially if they've changed a while back.We're actually still on good terms he and I--I think we may at least remain good friends. He even helped me with 20+ hour drive from Florida back to Jersey which wasn't as awkward as I had anticipated it would have been. We stopped at his parents on the way, where I managed to get a little bit of much needed closure as well; and it felt good to see that they didn't treat me any differently.

I can't deny the fact that I was an emotional wreck, for the couple of days after the break up--which was very recent--but you know, I'm taking it day-by-day. And now that I'm home, everything seems to be a lot better (Probably because I'm surrounded by my friends and family now). I never really imagined myself, you know, back in Jersey--and liking it for the most part. Do I see myself staying here for the rest of my life? Hopefully not.

But there are a lot of things that really need to be done right now while I'm here. For starters, I need to get my career started. Florida was nice and all, but where I was, there seemed to be no end to my unemployment even after I obtained my RN license. So for three months and then some, I had been sitting around the house like a bum hoping and praying for a call for a job offer...nothing came up though. And I just had...no friends. I guess that makes the whole adjustment process a whole lot worse. Now that I'm home, I can get my social life back, rekindle some friendships, and make some new friends. I also need to get myself established financially as well--what with school loans and all. Maybe, I'll even be able to get myself a newer car as well. My little '94 Honda and I had a good run, but she's been running kinda low for some time now; afterwhich, I will proceed to find a way to move out of my parents' house.

Well, you seem to have things planned out and handling it well, don't you Ms. Sims?

Why, yes. Yes, I do. I can't afford to sit around for months in an endless fit of depression. He's moved on already (as he has already admitted to me) because he came to term with his feelings a long time ago. I know I may still have some low moments every now and then...but I think I'm over the initial hurt and I'm done crying about it. I need to pick myself up and start anew, get to know myself as a young adult--we both do.

Okay. I'm done rambling to you all now. I'll try not to wait so long between posts anymore.

Peace and Love.

Update!

Hey all!

I know. It's been like two whole months since I last updated on this thing--again to those of you who read this--I apologize for the lateness. Cut me some slack though. I just finished up this semester...my last semester at Hampton University. That's right! This Mothers Day, Sunday, May 13, 2012, I will be ending my undergraduate career and graduating from the Hampton University School of Nursing. Praise God!!

It's been a tough year with an even tougher curriculum. This has really made me realize just how thankful I should be to be able to graduate on time from this very difficult Nursing program. To be honest, everything seems kinda...weird. This is the last semester that I will see all of my HU friends--all of whom will be missed. I have to try and keep in touch with them.

Anyways, I just felt the need to update this thing since its been so very, very long. I should be able to blog a little more often now that I have the time to. Quite frankly, I'm having a hard time remembering what I used to do for fun on my own now...Guess I'll just have to re-discover myself. ^_^

Farewell, until next time!

Just a Little Further

     Hey there all. It's been a while...I know--a whole month. Sorry for the wait. It's been quite busy for me this past month--but that makes sense since I'm a graduating senior and all. Nursing has been treating me well. I passed my first test. Unfortunately, test #2 that was earlier this week, I might not have faired so well on. Regardless if I passed or failed that test though is something I don't have time to worry about for now. Right now, I just have to focus on doing better on the next test which is a couple weeks from now. I started clinicals, which is going well so far for my first 12-hour clinical ever. We only meet Saturdays though...which I don't mind. Even further so I have a preceptorship that I go to every Tuesday and Thursday--as a matter of fact I'm getting ready to go to that shortly. Not to mention Fridays I volunteer at the Children's Hospital nearby. So as you can see the semester started busy, and it's only getting busier. Good thing I only have a little further to go.
     May 13, 2012 marks the date of my graduation and the day before that will be my Nursing Pinning and Capping Ceremony. I can't wait!! It's already March 1st!! Spring is right around the corner, too--my most favorite season!! But seriously, our Spring Break is right around the corner--Friday as a matter of fact. And for some reason this week just couldn't pass by quick enough. Thankfully it's already Thursday. I have a few assignments to do before this day is over and then FREEDOM!! I will be heading to Florida to visit my loving boyfried for all of the much needed break. Oh. And did I mention we're--correction he's--getting a puppy. Well, I'll tell you now. After much talk and consideration, my boyfriend finally buckled down and decided just a few weeks ago that he was going to get a puppy. He's going today to see the little squirt and his siblings. We're going to get a little German Shepherd...that will one day turn into a BIG German Shepherd Dog. Of course we've done our research and all. But only reading and watching how to train a dog can only do so much until you have to do it for real. When I get the chance, I'll post pictures of the cute furball. Until then, you guys will just have to wait with anticipation. Haha!

     Well, well, look at the time! I gotta go and head out to my preceptorship now. I'll try my hardest to get on this thing a little bit more often--time willing of course. It's been real.

Act Your Age...Please

     Okay...I know it has been a LONG while since I last entertained those of you who take the time to actually read this. But I now find the need to vent my head off about something that I had witnessed just a few short hours ago.     
     Today, I had gone over to my nursing class that I really did not have to go to day--of course I didn't find that out until actually I got there--but whatever. Anyway, the people out of our nursing class who did have to be there today, were the students that were getting orientation for a particular clinical site. Now, 6 of the 8 people in my clinical group--including myself--still went to the nursing building today. Though for me, I was just stupid to think we actually were still going to have class today. The remaining 5 were there for the soul purpose of switching out of the clinical group we were ALL in, for the sake of getting into the clinical at another facility.
     Now, lets get one thing clear. This particular clinical group is made up with the people I had clinicals with last semester, and I regarded them very highly...until today. There were 4 clinical groups made out of our class of 30 students. Eight of us were to go to Saturday clinicals at a BRAND NEW facility(my group). Seven of us were to go to another facility on Sundays. Everyone else in the class would be going throughout certain days(and nights) of the week to the local facility--everyone, save for one student, has been to that facility at least once throughout our matriculation in the nursing program.
     This is where everything starts to get confusing and slightly annoying. The facility that would have hosted the Sunday clinical decided to drop us; so, the people in the Sunday clinicals would now have to go to the local facility throughout the week now. The five students in my clinical group that came to class today didn't come because they thought we were going to have class--like my sleep-deprived brain thought. No. They came to switch out of the Saturday clinical (at the brand new facility) to the Sunday group that is now local. Why would they do this? Because the clinical instructor we had last semester--who is by all means AMAZING--would be instructing that group. However, we had already filled out our information and everything for the clinical facility that we would be attending on Saturdays. The issue arose when the 5 of them were denied the ability to switch. Then everyone got all pissed off at our teacher (whom I feel real sorry for to have to deal with immaturity like that).
     What makes me so upset, is that this particular group that was trying to switch clinicals are some transfer students in their mid 20's and one person in their early 40's...Well, all of them except for one who was a regular fresh-out-of-high school grad that I had met freshmen year(myself also being a fresh-out-of-high school grad). So they all got extra pissed about and began acting very immaturely. Well except for my freshmen friend and myself. She had been indifferent about the whole situation of switching anyway. And then the other four tried to bring ME into this! Really?? Just earlier last week they were being all secretive about what there plans were about switching out and didn't want to tell me anything until just this week. I had even told them that our information from the Saturday facility's application had already been processed and that we had all been emailed our login IDs and passwords. Did they listen to me? Of course not. So they went on ahead with their plans of trying to switch out of Saturdays group, to the Sunday group. Need I inform you that the Sunday clinical was already filled. As a matter of fact, the whole class of 30 decided on these groups about 3 weeks ago AND we had already handed in our information and applications to our prospective facilities. That's tedious work that takes a long time to get processed by the facilities. So what would make them think that our teacher would even think of wasting more time by switching everyone's clinical groups, especially when our info had already been processed?
     What they failed to realize was that the entire time, there would have been no way that our nursing teacher could switch out nearly the whole group from Saturdays clinical to Sunday's local clinical. For the sake of what? Having the same clinical instructor. Don't get me wrong. As I said before, she was an amazing instructor. As a matter of fact, she even took up doing these Med-Surg clinicals for the sake of our class because--guess what?--those same five students had asked and pleaded her to be a clinical instructor after she had already had us last semester for Mental Health clinicals. She will still be a clinical instructor the the Mental Health class this semester, too. So now she really will be overworked. However, on our nursing teacher's behalf that would appear to be favoritism. What would make them think that she would really switch them over for the reason of having the same clinical instructor?
Our teacher even said: "I cannot just switch over a whole clinical group like that for the sake of an instructor. Besides, are you not here for your education, not for the sake of keeping your same clinical group?" I absolutely agreed.
Then, one of them replied "That's not the point! It's the principle!"
ARE YOU SERIOUS??? You're wasting your time and money if your only here for the sake of making a few friends that you may or may not ever see again after you graduate. Of course, that was also a statement made in the heat of the moment so she probably wasn't thinking before she spoke.
     Anyways, as it turns out, one of the students in the Sunday clinical group could not go to the local facility because she is a foreign student who does not have the correct credentials to do clinicals there, so someone of the six people that showed up today from the Saturday clinical group today would have to switch out.
That's when things started to get kinda bad, because the five of them were pretty much instilling the principle: "Well if one of goes, then we all go."
That's when I had to seperate myself from them: "Correction. I never wanted to switch out like you guys did. I just came here today because I thought we had class."
Then they all huffed-and-puffed about it. I just grinned and beared it. I mean don't get mad at me. I didn't say anything the entire time you guys had been arguing with the teacher, but I'll be damned if you guys try to drag me down with you when you didn't even want me to know in the first place. If you guys had stopped being all secretive about it (and failing at it) and had taken my advice from the start, then maybe you wouldn't be in this situation. So finally our teacher decided that she was going to pick the five names of them out of a hat to decide who would switch with the one student. She didn't get very far though, because the one student that I had mentioned (that I had known since freshmen year) decided to volunteer herself and act like an adult...the least could be set about our other four peers. Our teacher thanked her and the two of them went to the orientation that was taking place just downstairs.
     After she had left, the librarian (who EVERYONE in the nursing department loves) had heard everything and tried to talk calmly to the four, now very upset, students that had continued to bad-mouth our teacher. Though they agreed with her very valid points(most of which were stated throughout this rant), they were all still salty about it. But all I can say is that I've just lost a little bit of respect for these particular peers. They acted extremely immaturely--thinking selfishly about themselves and what they wanted--that they didn't even think about how much longer it would push the whole class back from actually starting clinicals (which we are already late in starting)...Save for the one 22-year-old who acted like an adult amongst the childish mid-20 year olds and early-40 year old. Thank you...for acting your age.

     Please keep in mind that all of the things stated in this post are things I wish I had half the mind to actually say out loud. Writing seems to be the only way to get these frustrations out of my head. I'm not a realy talkative person when it comes to conflicts but I will surely denounce myself from one if I dared be bought into it--like what happened in this particular situation.

Alright. I'm done venting now. Time to get some more work done.

Back on My Daily Grind

     Well, the new semester has begun. The first day of class of my final semester as an undergrad was this passed Thursday--and talk about an awkward start at that...Thursday? Really??? Anyways, I digress. Our professor hit the groud running (and rather quickly might I add) since this was, after all, the nursing course that would take up the majority of our time throughout this semester. This very class just so happens to be the "part II" portion of a class that I took back in my first semester of junior year. And well..let's just say that class gave me far more trouble than I had expected it too--seriously, that class was the reason my GPA suffered the most. So this semester, I plan to get ahead as much as I possibly can with this "part II" so I can do better than I did previously. Then again, I had a pretty heavy course load the semester I took the "part I" of that class. This time, the course load is a little bit--and I stress on the little bit--lighter than it was that semester. So with this last semester freshly started anew, it's time for me to get back on my daily grind of studying day-in and day-out.

Wish me luck!

Transitioning

     Before I begin, I just want to take a moment to apologize to those of you who actually read this blog after I abandoned it for the past week and a half (or more). I don't know how I managed to forget about this thing here...oh, wait, I know why...because of the joyous Holiday season.
     So far, this Winter Break from college is turning out to be a good one. It'll end in about a week, but it was very much needed and very well spent. Though most of this break I've spent lazing about and working at Target, I've been doing a lot of assessment of my life, especially before ringing in the New Year. It almost seems like yesterday when I entered college as a freshmen and spent my first Holiday break home in 2008 going into 2009 and now its 2012--my last holiday break as a college undergrad. This will probably be the last time that I spend the Holiday season here in NJ for a long while since I have intended on moving in with my long-term boyfriend (hopefully fiancée some time this year) right after I graduate.
     So far, the time spent during this break was mainly in the house or out with family. My boyfriend even came up from the warm Florida weather to this bland, cold weather of NJ to spend New Years with me. Since our relationship is now long-distance, it was by far the best gift received for the Holiday and added +100 points to the Holiday break. I went to only two Christmas parties which were alright but I have yet to see and/or hang out with some good friends that I attended high school with. I usually hang out with them a lot during the summer and get a chance to see them so-so during these college breaks, but not so much this time around. I have to make sure I get in touch with them some time before I leave back for school since, as stated before, this may very well be my last time NJ for a long while.
     It has been interesting to see how much things change throughout the years since we've graduated/attended high school...we still live in the same, small, backwards little town yet the ones who have really changed is us--even in the ways we now view each other. Yeah, we may not hang out as often anymore but that's because many of us have learned to open up to make new friends and start new journeys for ourselves. It's sort of sad,yes, but also sort of enlightening. Very soon most of us will be graduating or continuing college education until completion and before you know it, we'll be entering the true world of adulthood...cruel, cruel adulthood (bills, car notes, mortgages, school loans, etc.)
     As a side note to this drawn out entry, I would also like to mention that this "transitioning" not only refers to the above contents, but to my hair as well. Being a young African-American woman, I have had my hair chemically relaxed since I was eight years old. Now as a 22 year old--and a college student--keeping up this hair is becoming financially taxing (seriously its about $60 just to get a relaxer touch-up) and thus during this past summer, I dabbled in thoughts of transitioning my hair. Finally, on August 28, 2011 I had my last chemically relaxed hair style and proceeded to transition my hair to natural...as many African-American women are beginning to do now. I want to be able to love my natural hair for what it is--no matter what the texture may be. I haven't set an exact date yet for when I will go for the big chop since I intend on going through a long-term transition where I will keep my chemically relaxed hair as my natural hair gradually grows in as new growth and will gradually trim off the relaxed ends. The long-term transition is better suited for me than the big chop because getting all my hair chopped off right away scares the crap out of me since I've never had such short hair in my life. So yeah all of that explanation aside, I have been going through the transition process for about 4 months now and so far I have about an inch or so of new growth. I've also began experimenting with different products for natural hair. If anyone is interested in reading about the process of my transitioning, please let me know and I can keep you all posted on my progress.

Well, it's been real. I hope you all have a safe and Happy New Year.