This Last Didactic Semester.....

Y'all, this semester was a SEMESTER! So many moving parts in my personal life, my employment and my academic life...BUT WE MADE IT!

By God's grace and a lot of sacrifice (i.e. quitting my full-time job and hitting those books, and being a present parent for my 2 young children- p.s. Toddlerhood is THE GHETTO 😩), WE MADE IT 🥳🥳🥳🥳!

The way I saw it was, I could always get another job, but I can't undo a bad grade, I did not want to have to pay a hefty bill for a bad grade then another bill to retake the course, and most importantly, I could not get those precious years with my children back. With that being said, I don't believe in the phrase "time is money". While money is a very important resource to be properly stewarded, we aim to make more of it in less time, I do agree with, AND it is a renewable source. We can look up countless millionaires and billionaires who have lost it all and it made it back 10 times quicker. Why? Because, they learned how to lose it, what not to repeat, and the more efficient ways to get to the success they wanted. You can maximize and steward time to make the most of it, but once time is gone, it is gone.

I do believe my dedication to excelling in my studies will put me in a position to be a confident, well informed and studied nurse. I also believe in the ethos of nursing, wound, ostomy, and continence requires a level of attention, knowledge, understanding to grasp evidenced based concepts as well as the wisdom to apply it to the practices, respectively.

I say all that to say, the loss of finances to focus on what mattered most, was not an actual loss , because what I gained was priceless. Certainly a stressor, but not a loss in the face of what I gained. The time and freedom to be there for my children in their formative years mattered so much because when I was overwhelmed with work, school, and parenting, I did not have the grace and space for myself and my children.I was just going non-stop on autopilot, lacking rest, not paying attention to my diet and my prayer time/ bible study time got shorter and shorter because I was always on the go.

I was able to slow down, reconnect with the Word of God, strengthen my faith in God's promises to me, as well as refill my cup from God so that I would be able to healthily pour into my children, my education, my work versus bleeding over everything unhealthily. I gained so much patience not only to learn about children as they beautifully grew, but also to learn about myself in every facet that I show up (as a daughter of God, as a servant of God's Kingdom, as a new mom, as their mom, as a nurse, as a leader, as a student of life). It allowed me to humble myself and pay attention to the things that mattered to my children. I expanded my understanding beyond limiting beliefs of what I once thought was important. In essence, the moments that mattered the most were filled with love, hugs, laughter, cuddles, prayer, memories, all the things that money could not buy.

The ability to study and really focus on my studies, and of course, the connection with my fellow WOCN students who will be colleagues in the field. We will cherish our experience during the rough moments and laugh at the times that we cried while fighting through a difficult semester together.

This experience has brought me remember these Bible verses during tough times:

1. 2 Timothy 2:15 KJV "Study to [show] thyselves approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of the Truth."

This applies to The Word of God - The Bible, as well as the areas of life that God has blessed us to lead in, including our careers, families, volunteering, ministry, etc. God does not expect perfection from us, but certainly our individual levels of excellence.

2.