This week, I started grad school, and Pope Francis was visiting the United States. I came home at night exhausted - cramming 40 hours of work and a full-time grad school course load even in the first week, began taking its toll on me right away. I feel asleep every night this week nearly in tears (sometimes actually in tears) wondering what I had gotten myself to.
The greatest sense of peace I felt all week was when I listened to Pope Francis speak - to Congress, to church leaders, to laypeople. The audience was not as enthralling as the message he imparted upon the people in his peaceful, soft spoken way. The string throughout all of his homilies and speeches was simple, but planted a seed in my heart that reminded me why I am where I am - I feel called to serve.
As a nurse, it almost goes without saying that I 'want to help people'. It's the answer everyone gives when they ask why they become a nurse. But in listening to Pope Francis, I have realized that there is a difference between wanting to help and being called to serve.
This past week, for all its difficulties, has rekindled my faith and reminded me that I am a nurse - a public health nurse - and a grad school student because I want to use compassion and knowledge to serve the people in my community who most need it, and to serve them with both my head and my heart.
