Thankful Thursday | better than jewelry

This week, I am thankful:

that I don’t love fancy brands

During our Philly day trip, we wandered into a Tiffany’s store, and this made me grateful that I am not fancy enough to appreciate such expensive things. It took no self-control for me to walk out empty-handed. 

Honestly, my favorite item in the store was this stuffed bird:

Unfortunately, he is $300. YIKES.

Is he cute? Yes.

Is he $300 cute? No. 

that I’m so close to being done with the schoolwork for my first class

I’m in the middle of a string of night shifts right now, so before they started, I worked ahead on assignments. And that means all I have left now is submitting a Docucare assignment, which I have basically finished.

I should get feedback on a previous Docucare assignment today, and after I look over that, I will apply any feedback and then submit the one I’m working on.

Then I’m done, 2.5 weeks ahead of time. 

Yay!!! 

(Docucare is basically a practice version of medical documentation software that we use in hospitals, such as Epic.)

that I was able to get my non-hospital life in order before this set of shifts

I had a nice string of 4.5 days off, so even though I spent one of them in Philly, I still had time to straighten out the rest of my life.

 

I got schoolwork done (as I said above), but I also:

• cleaned my house
• washed my laundry
• organized my fridge
• called and made appointments (because I finally had a day off during normal business hours!)
• did my end-of-quarter tax paperwork
• planned some menus
• prepped food 
• wrote blog posts

OOOOOH, did I feel better after all of that.

This means I have very few Non-Hospital-Life things hanging over my head right now. Yay! 

that my night shifts got moved closer together

My original schedule was supposed to be three nights, then five days off, then three nights.

Now it’s three nights, two days off, then three nights.

I’m happier about this because honestly, with five days off in between, I’d just be starting to live daytime life again and then I’d have to flip right back to nights.

This way I can just get it all over with, although I really do not know what I’m gonna do with myself on the two days in between. 

If you see me posting on my Facebook page at 2 am, you will know what has happened. 😉 

that my professor listened to my appeal

On the last exam, there were two questions that really should have been “select all that apply” rather than multiple-choice.

For instance, if you’re gonna ask me to pick a risk factor for breast cancer to use while educating a patient, you can’t have four choices that are all risk factors! 

She emailed me back, asked for sources, I found them in the textbook and sent them over, and she agreed with my assessment. She’s gonna credit points to anyone who missed those questions, and she’ll rewrite the questions for future classes.

Yay! 

I so appreciate when professors are willing to listen to students. 

for the non-traditional way my life has turned out

(If I have said this before, I apologize for repeating myself!)

Sometimes, I do still feel some sadness that my life didn’t take the route I thought it would.

But overall, I am grateful.

I feel like I have such an interesting little life now:

• I take little trips
• I do things with friends
• I go to the symphony
• I live in my cute little house
• I spend part of my life in Hospital World doing meaningful work
• I’m working on another degree
• I get to share my life here with you all

…and I am only getting started on this new phase of life.

There is time for many more interesting adventures! 

that a lifetime is enough for so many things

I know I have said this before; that I am frequently amazed at how much one can fit into a lifetime.

As I meet people at work and I answer questions about my pre-hospital life, I am sometimes struck by how many things, how many life stages, how many iterations of me I have experienced already! 

And I am possibly only about halfway through my life. There might still be so much time ahead of me. 🙂 

that I now look forward to the future

I have written about this a little here, and quite a lot on my Patreon, but…I used to look to the future with dread. It seemed dark and threatening and hopeless, and at my lowest point, in the weeks before I left my marriage, I saw no point in continuing on with life.

I looked down the road and all I could see was more suffering.

But now, I look forward with happy anticipation. I think my future is full of interesting possibilities and adventures, and I hope I am blessed with many more years. 

 

 

Thinking about this is making me tear up, in a happy way. What a relief this change is. 

What are you thankful for this week?