Maybe this isn't universal. Maybe this is just a phenomenon in "nursing towns" where a bulk of the students in the universities are trying to get into nursing programs, and few of them ever actually get in.
I started off my pre-nursing/nursing journey in San Francisco, where universities are littered with jilted pre-nursing majors who were wait-listed or changed majors somewhere along the way and had to change paths. Actually being allowed the honor in a state university of changing your major from pre-nursing to nursing was something akin to a Nobel Peace Prize. I was accepted to two programs once I finished my prerequisites, but opted to move to Sacramento for nursing school - another "nursing town", as it turned out.
Nursing students have a few identifiers at my university - our scrubs, our name badges, and our sweatshirts with the word "nursing" emblazoned across the front, ten times bigger than the name of our university. What I've found since being a nursing student is that when I wear any of these on campus, or to the store for a quick something after clinical maybe, a lot of people put aside the fact that they don't know you personally, because they know nursing.
"Oh, you're in nursing school! You must be really smart!"
That one makes me really uncomfortable, because... well, yes, I've gotten good grades. Yes, I like to think that I'm smart and capable. But how do you respond to this compliment without sounding like an overblown pufferfish? My usual answer is normally, "Well, I study really hard all the time..."
Then, there's the obligatory, "When are you graduating?"
Now, I can answer that it's going to be within the year, and there is always a huge, bright-smiled congratulations that gives me immense warm fuzzies, but also a feeling of pressure. No screwing up now, I tell myself. I've already been congratulated for graduation, so I better deliver, even if I am never going to see this person again.
My favorite story, however, is about a Wal-mart cashier I met last year who was quite frankly intimidating. She was tall, a bit burly, with tattoos and a piercing stare as she rang up the yarn and groceries I was buying with my grandmother. No conversation, no small-talk, just awkward silence and no eye contact.
Then, all of a sudden, she happens to glance at my sweatshirt, and as she's ringing up the ten Yoplait yogurts that I'm buying, she mutters, "You in nursing school, girl?"
"Yeah," I manage to say in my surprise that she's actually speaking to us now.
"Graduating?"
"Next year," I say with a small smile. "Still a little way away, but I'm getting there."
"Man, I tried those prereqs and I couldn't even hack it for a semester. Get it, girl!" she said, suddenly beaming at me and offering a fistbump, which I return with pleasant surprise. She manages a "Have a nice day!" for my grandma and I before plastering her business face back on for the next customer.
Being a nursing student is something amazing, just as an experience. It feels like everyone's rooting for you, even when you're just stepping out of your house. You hold doors for old ladies at the store, they get a glance at your scrubs or your sweatshirts, and they smile and say they hope you take care of them one day.
It's amazing how people just come together and support others, and being a nursing student has been one of those amazing chances to experience that kindness and support from people.
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