The long road to LPN

As you’ve read, I am currently a Licensed Practical Nurse. I want to tell you about how this came to be. Becoming an LPN was not my original goal. When I was fresh out of high school, I started at Troy University, majoring in nursing… in just four and a half short years I would receive my Bachelors of Science in Nursing, how exciting! I made it through the first two years with an above average GPA, while still having fun and experiencing college. Then came the nursing program. Let me tell you, nothing can prepare you for nursing school, the hours you have to put in to studying, driving, clinicals, and classes can become a little overwhelming, but I made it through first semester fine (there are five semesters total). Second semester came and I started out on top, but I didn’t finish that way. During the end of the semester, my Great-Grandmother became very sick and long story short, I didn’t pass two classes by a grand total of 3 points. When you’re in nursing school, you only get two chances, and once those chances are gone, you have to revert to your back up plan…well I didn’t have one. I had never even made a D in my life, let alone failed a class. Needless to say, I was devastated. I felt like such a failure and a disappointment to myself and my family.

So after what seemed like the worst few weeks of my life (failing classes, the passing of my Great-Grandmother, and the disappointment from my family) I decided it was time to “nut up or shut up.” I started making phone calls to other nursing schools in the area, trying to see which programs would accept my credits and when their application deadlines were. Only one school wasn’t already past the deadline, and that was LBWCC. The only problem was, they offered an LPN program, not an RN program. I did a lot of thinking, and decided that I would do the LPN program (I only lacked two semesters) and get my RN shortly after, while I was working as an LPN.

So now here I am, a Nurse! I am so proud to say that, after all of the hard work and effort I’ve put in to my schooling. Some people would say that I’m a “failure” but I don’t think so…I never gave up on becoming a nurse. I plan on returning to school next year to become an RN, and even though it will take me a little longer than most to reach my original goal, I’m glad I decided to keep on keepin’ on. I’ve made so many friends, and discovered so much about myself as a person, that I wouldn’t change anything about my journey. As they say, everything happens for a reason!