I look forward to having the opportunity to learn how to be a leader in my field of practice. I believe that my purpose in life is to be a leader. I also believe the only way to be a leader, is to first “work in the trenches". Second, I need to educate myself. I don't just want to get through school. I want to educate myself in as many areas of nursing as possible. This being said, I know that making the necessary arrangements in my life to facilitate going back to school will be difficult. My biggest fear is that I will not be able to convey just how adamant I am about furthering my education due to my personal life. I'm sure that there will come a time where I have so much going on that I just can't perform to the best of my ability. Through experience, I have learned to rely on the help of my family and friends to assist me during these challenging times.

When I was in nursing school at CAC, this fear of mine came to fruition. At the time I was trying to raise two children on my own, I had three foreclosing homes, a custody battle, full-time work, and a lawsuit to contend with. I had my first test coming up in the third block of the school of nursing. I simply had no time to study for it. I would take my books with me to work, or to the courthouse when I could. I found myself beginning to break down. I knew that I didn't have adequate time to study for my test and that I would fail. The only option was to contact my mom. I knew that it would be asking a lot of my mom to watch my children as she had a full-time and part-time job. I also knew that this meant that I had to admit to myself and to my mom that I had, “Bitten off more than I could chew”. Fortunately, she agreed to call off work and watch my children for a few hours. This allowed me a couple extra hours of study time. When I receive the results of my test, I saw that I had barely passed. At that point in my life I realize that I could not do it all on my own. I learned that at times, it's very important to ask for help from family and friends. As a result, not only did I pass the class, but I was able to graduate and fulfill my dream of becoming a Nurse. It wasn't pretty at times, but I was forced to face my fear. I had to learn how to cope with the demands of being in school and accept the fact that at times, I need to ask for help.