I had always enjoyed caring for the elderly, so when I first received my practical nursing license, working in long term care seemed like an obvious choice. Little did I know, my career path was about to take a drastic shift. Being thrown into the world of hospice only three months into my nursing career terrified me, brought on a great deal of anxiety, and made me contemplate quitting. It was a path that I would not have chosen on my own, but it wound up being a path that would change every aspect of my life. Caring for hospice patients made me a better nurse, a better mother, a better wife, and an all-around better human being. As an eager new nurse, fresh out of school, I applied to the Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital. I had my eye on their long term care unit since I did a clinical rotation there in nursing school. It had everything I wanted in my first nursing job: familiarity, structure, and a patient demographic that I was very comfortable with. I was hired, and I quickly adapted to the duties of my job. All of my dreams had been attained, or so I thought. My unit received notice that the long term care patients would be moved to a separate, stand-alone nursing home. Our unit would be converted to inpatient hospice. Hearing the news made me feel sick to my stomach. The thought of caring for dying patients made me extremely uncomfortable, and I hadn’t even been employed there long enough to be eligible for a transfer to another unit. Financially, quitting was not an option. I promised myself that I would stick with it through the transition and training period, and after that, one day at a time. After six weeks of training and working with experienced hospice nurses, I started to warm up to the specialty. While stressful at times, it wasn’t nearly as scary as my mind had perceived it to be. I met some truly amazing people, patients and coworkers alike. I gained a great respect for death and the dying process. I learned to place greater value in the people who are important to me, for we are all here for just a short period of time. The people I met, and the lessons I learned in my three years as a hospice nurse have left an imprint on the core of my being that will remain with me for a lifetime. There were many tears, but those tears were balanced with equal amounts of gratification. That was nine years ago, and although I’ve moved on from the hospice field, I took away a very valuable lesson. Fear of unknown situations is only temporary, and running away from those fears might cause me to miss out on a life-changing experience. There is a lot of unknown in the world, but now, rather than fear the unknown; I am more inclined to embrace it. There’s almost always a new skill or life lesson to be learned.