Pomp and Circumstances

December 17. 

I have thought about this day for months now. When we (nursing program students) were finally given the official ending date, I noted this on my calendar, as if I somehow needed the visual reminder.  But because it was months away, and I had yet one more class looming large before me, I dared not give it too much thought!

Finally, the last week of school arrived, and it started out with a bang. Well, actually a blizzard of sorts, and temperatures cold enough to freeze your shocked expression as you stepped outside. Schools across much of the state were closed, and unfortunately, so was my college. 

Oh, the horrors! We were scheduled to take our final exam on Monday, and mother nature was not in a very cooperative mood. Facebook lit up like a Christmas tree as the shocking news spread amongst the nursing students. I could almost hear the groans (and cursing) as I read the various colorful comments. One thing I have learned about nursing students nearing the end of their program: patience is thread-bare-minimum. Virtually non-existent. 

As it turns out, the closure was a good call, as roads were an icy, frozen mess, with cars piling up in ditches faster than tow trucks could yank them out. Instructors rescheduled the final for Wednesday and those who could, stayed indoors to wait it out. I had about a three minute temper tantrum, and then decided that since I was going to be home all day, I might as well do something constructive. For me, anything even remotely associated with food is constructive, and baking Christmas cookies is ranked very high in my little construction zone. 

So I baked.
My son helped, but mostly sampled. He was in a state of happy delirium from the moment he heard the two words most school-age children long to hear: Snow Day. And as such, his attention span was about the size of this word; simply put, he didn't spend too much time in the kitchen.

But back to the baking. There is something about the aroma of freshly baked cookies that soothes the ravaged soul. I speculate if this is the case, than eating the freshly baked cookies must be incredibly therapeutic. If this is so, than I did enough sampling to be cured of anything that could possible ail me from now until approximately 2017. Wow, my nursing school dollars did not go to waste, after all.

Fast forward to Wednesday. The exam went very well, I was very happy with my score, and as this is not a particularly difficult class, most students, as well as myself, received an A as their final grade. After the exam, as was the case the previous day, we attended the NCLEX review, which is a review of the nursing board exam. This exam is mandatory to receive a license to become a registered nurse. I had been looking forward to these three review days, hoping to pick up some sage wisdom about the exam, but the review was mostly a regurgitation of the study books we received. As reward for the 24 hours spent in those hard seats, we lost all feeling in our lower extremities and are none the wiser for the exam. Actually, in all fairness to the instructor that flew in from South Carolina, she did throw out the occasional nugget of wisdom, which we hungrily devoured and jotted down on the note margins.

As we all streamed out of the building for the very last time, we left with the reassuring thought that we would do well on the exam. After all, our school has an impressive 98% pass rate for students taking the NCLEX for the first time. No worries, right?


Now, about that 2%.........