A few weeks ago I celebrated my twentieth birthday. It is so hard to believe that my years as a teenager are over now! When I think over all that has happened in the past several years, I cannot believe how much my life has changed. God has been faithful through it all, and I wanted to take a trip down memory lane with you all and pull up some old pictures. My teenage years have shaped me into the person I am today, so they are definitely pertinent to my experience in nursing school!
2013: The year I started high school! I began my Omnibus program with Veritas Press. As an avid reader and writer, I loved all the books I read throughout the curriculum. I read my favorite book of all time during this year: Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. Words can't express how thankful I am that I was able to be homeschooled through high school.
2013 was also the year I started to get into cake decorating! Mom and I took the first of our 3 Wilton courses.
2014: The year I had my scoliosis surgery. This changed my sophomore year in so many ways! I had a very limited amount of weight I could safely lift, and my recovery made focusing on school very challenging. I couldn't have possibly made it through this year without the selfless support and love I received from my family and friends. They helped me in so, so many ways, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
This was also the year I got my first "real" Canon camera. I saved up for it over the summer, and I had so much fun taking pictures of my siblings and posting them on our family blog.
2015: My sophomore year of highschool! This year was full of SAT prep and studying for CLEP college algebra and AP English. I was able to start lifting again, and I started to get back into running with my mom.
During this year my seven years in Destination Imagination came to an end after my team advanced to the global tournament! Our team was able to travel to Knoxville, TN to compete. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience, and it was a fantastic way to end my years in DI.
2016: My senior year began! Finishing my homeschool journey was bittersweet, but I was so thankful to my parents for making it possible for me.
2017-2018: My years at Covenant! I can't put into words how much I miss this beautiful place, my incredible professors, and the sweet friends who brought me through my first years of college. Although Covenant didn't have a nursing program, I knew I wanted to spend my first two years at a Christian college. I was able to continue the liberal arts approach to education and take a variety of classes in history, biblical studies, literature, philosophy, art, and psychology. The classes were certainly not easy, but I learned so so much during my time there.
I couldn't have asked for better roommates!
While at Covenant I had a work study position in the admissions office as a student admissions representative. It was so much fun to work with prospective students, making hundreds of phone calls and giving tours of the gorgeous campus! This job also prepared me for customer service when I started work at Chick-Fil-A the following year.
When I was deciding which college I wanted to attend, Dr. Morris (the dean of the sciences at Covenant) encouraged me to consider studying biology with a health professions concentration. This provided an invaluable foundation for my future nursing studies. He told me that nurses often go through school without a solid background in the sciences. By immediately starting nursing school, I also would have missed out on the opportunities for spiritual and emotional growth that Covenant had to offer me.
During my freshman year my family moved from New Hampshire to Alabama! This was a huge change that we prayed about for many years. Although it was very difficult to say goodbye to NH, we were blown away by the welcome we received from our new church family and friends. AL definitely feels like home now.
2019: The year I found out I got accepted into nursing school! I am so blessed to be able to attend such a good school and learn from so many amazing nursing professors. I am still blown away by the amount of information they have packed into the classes I have taken already. I am confident that all of my professors are doing everything they can to prepare me to be the very best nurse I can be!
2020: I had a wonderful twentieth birthday! My coworkers bought me a beautiful cake and sang for me, I went out for hibachi with my mom and little sister, and I ended the evening by relaxing and watching a movie. I am so thankful for all the ups, downs, and times of growth I experienced during my teen years, and I can't wait to see what God has planned for me as I enter my twenties!
Thanks for reading!!
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