Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Scholarship Essay

Well, I'm going to totally cop out on this one and copy and paste an essay I just completed for a scholarship I am applying for.  Just a little more insight into my crazy nutshell.  Oh, and an entertaining picture of the pure drive and comittment I speak of in the essay.

Scholarship Essay

My journey into the field of nursing began many years ago, probably when I was beginning my first few years of college.  I always had nursing in the back of my mind, but back then I wasn’t shall we say, as academically motivated as I am today.  Average grades suited me just fine.  I knew deep down that I had the potential to apply myself and excel in academics, but it definitely was not my priority. 
I graduated in 2000 with a Bachelors degree in Criminal Justice.  I began my career as a Tulsa Police officer in 2001.  I worked patrol for four years and spent six years in TPD’s Special Investigation Division (SID).  While in SID I investigated everything from prostitution, street level narcotics all the way up to trafficking narcotics.  
In October of 2009, my second son was born.  He was diagnosed with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus.  His first surgery was about four hours after he was born.  In the first six months of his life, he had five surgeries.  It was during our first few weeks in the NICU that my long ago buried dreams of becoming a nurse started to resurface.  For years my husband and I had joked about me going back to school.  He would laugh and say, “Sure, just as soon as you have 10 years on the department and you can make straight A’s.”  Well, here we are, at a place where those jokes have become a reality (which we still laugh about). 
We started seriously talking about it again while we passed the hours sitting in the NICU with our baby.  I told my husband that I wanted to be a nurse.  I told him that I could feel it in my bones.  I told him that I felt like this was my “now or never” opportunity.  He was very supportive and even pushed me when that thought became reality and I enrolled in my first college course since graduating nearly 10 years ago and when our new baby was just two months old.  It was intimidating and I was terrified.  Here I had a toddler at home and a brand new baby who may need special daily medical care and I was contemplating going back to school while working full time.  Was this crazy?  According to most of my friends and co-workers, yes!  However, my husband convinced me to walk out the door that first day of my Biology class and I have never looked back. 
I have discovered amazing things about myself in the past 18 months.  I discovered that I actually am smart!  I learned that I actually can make straight A’s with a lot of hard work and commitment.  Since taking that first class in the spring of 2010, it has been full steam ahead toward nursing school.  I have completed 34 credit hours in the past 18 months with a 4.0 grade point average.  I am extremely proud of this accomplishment and I cannot express the shock and excitement I felt when I received my acceptance letter from the OU nursing department.  My family will be experiencing many changes in the next several months.  We will be going from a two income to one income family, which is terrifying!  I will be retiring as a police officer in August to start the BSN program at OU/Tulsa.  I am still a little scared, but very eager to start this new chapter in my life!
I am very happy to report that our now 20 month old son is doing fantastic.  He requires a little extra daily medical care, but he is just as rotten as his big brother and is a very happy boy!  When we have cuddle time before I put him to bed, I tell him that this is all his fault.  He just smiles and stares at me with his big blue eyes and I think to myself…I wouldn’t have it any other way. 
The hard work and comittment I speak of...


The baby whose fault this is...

Photograph courtesy of:

3 comments:

  1. Love this!! My mother in law finished nursing school, her life long dream, at 55!! So excited for you Ashley. May God bless and keep you during this process....

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm so proud of you!!! You will be a truly inspiring and nurturing nurse :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am so proud of you Ashley and the woman and mama you've become!!! You're going to make an awesome nurse. Love you!!

    ReplyDelete