What has it been, more than two years since I last wrote? Yeah...life has been busy.
To give you the Readers' Digest version of what has happened in my life in the last two years:
- Adopted a puppy...who is no longer a puppy. It's nice to have a new dog in the house.
- Had to take a break from moderating duties at the forum because graduate school was just too much work.
- Went to Spain to see family. It was my first time ever in Europe. If I could move to Madrid, I would.
- Was transferred to a new home unit at work. I was spending so much time on the psych ICU that they finally decided I should officially be assigned there. So I was, and then the next day, immediately floated back to med-psych.
- Moved to an even smaller town in the mountains. Smaller house but more land. I love living in the middle of nowhere. There's definitely a lot more space, a lot fewer people, a lot more livestock, and a lot more wildlife.
- Went through three advisors in graduate school. The first was there only a couple of months before she decided to return to a job in the NICU. The second was awesome! We were together for most of my time there until she decided to take a job with the state Department of Public Health. At this point, COVID-19 was still in its infancy, so she had no idea what she was getting into...
- Oh yeah, COVID-19. Life upended. Kids home constantly. At least in my new small mountain town, I could go outside and not have to mask up like I was going to see a TB patient.
- COVID and I became intimately acquainted. It was the 10-day headache. Fortunately, the recovery was quick and full. And fortunately, the family was spared.
- Graduated with my MSN-ED. Did not leave my current job as it pays too well. Plus, I never planned to immediately go into education...that's the long game, for when we leave the state and/or I decide to leave the bedside.
- Got through the strangest holiday season. My mother decided to fly out from the east coast for two months, so every two weeks, she would shuffle between my home and my sister's home.
- Meanwhile, our governor was busted violating his own health rules, so he threw a hissy fit and closed the state down through the holidays while she was here. This meant we couldn't do much except go to the parks and the reservation casinos.
- Things started getting back to normal-ish after the holidays.
- I was offered the COVID vaccine. I declined it for now. I'm waiting for the data on its long-term effects and possibly even on the final FDA approval for one of the variants. Then I'll consider taking it. Plus, I have bad allergies which make me very hesitant about taking experimental vaccines.
I received an interesting business proposition...which requires me to be a psychiatric nurse practitioner. Since I wasn't rushing to go right into education, I decided to think about it.
I have a MSN, so I'm already part of the way done. I could afford school without having to take out a loan (though I'd fight like hell to get as many scholarships as I could!). I'd have a set spot for my clinical hours. I'd have a job when I graduated. And even if the proposition fell through, having the NP would give me more career opportunities, especially if I am planning to leave the state.
Overall, I think pursuing the NP might be worth it.
So let's go apply and see what happens. After all, I'm not committed to anything by applying, right?
