Being a nursing student is hard enough - going from being purely academic to being able to jump freely between science/academia and practice at a moment's notice. Add on top of that the responsibilities of having a family, having children - even harder, having young children - and even the thought is almost enough to make you want to pull your hair out.
Like a lot of my classmates, I'm married, though I don't have children yet, and I put forth my best effort to have one day a week that I'm just a normal person and not a nursing student. I have dinner with whatever family I can. I don't pull out my textbooks and bury myself in them while I blindly swipe for finger foods.
I try to come home and cook dinner for my husband when I'm not too exhausted, so we can eat dinner together before crashing and falling asleep once he gets home. Sometimes, that doesn't happen.
I try to be awake enough at the end of the day to go out to dinner or go on a date with him once in a while. Sometimes, that doesn't happen.
I try to take breaks and do things on the side - because as much as I love nursing school and the idea of being a nurse, I have to think of other things once in a while. I love writing, and I love to knit and crochet. I love taking care of plants in my mini-garden which is really just the cement patio of our apartment.
There is no way to exaggerate how important it is to have a life during nursing school, even just a slight semblance of one on the side. If you think about it, when you're a nurse, you get off work and it's not nursing school anymore. You're not carrying them all home on your shoulder. You're not writing down and analyzing their lab values until wee hours of the morning, or killing trees printing out pages and pages of care plans. You come home, and you have your life back. Sometimes, your life will consist simply of plopping down and sleeping. Other times, you have time to do as you please - remind your spouse and your kids and your relatives that yes, you still exist.
It may seem far away while you're still in nursing school, but just remember - keep a little bit of your own life, so you don't forget how to live it outside of your job as a nurse.
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