Just Grateful

*Note: This is a late post, written on the 18th of April, 2012.

On the afternoon of April 15, 2012, I made my way up the stage in the brightly lit exhibit hall of a building a little ways away from our college, and received a rolled up paper signifying that I have finished my four year course of Nursing and a pin representing my nursing school. I couldn’t wipe the grin from my face as I marched back into my seat in the room full of people.

Finally.

I did it.

I am now a Nursing Graduate.

I am one of the 700+ students to graduate that day, in that room.

I’m so freakin’ proud of myself!

I bounced on my seat, grinning from ear to ear as I surveyed the sea of faces. I was seated practically right smack in the middle of the hall and everywhere were student joyously celebrating in their seats, unable to wait for this ceremony to end.

My college life had not been smooth sailing all throughout. Our school hadn’t been perfect. It was just a small campus, housing too many students. The administration doesn’t seem to be handling their jobs well, the system is always fucked up; always delayed, always disorganized and the school’s staff can be very unhelpful, making things a lot more frustrating especially during enrolment. Student complaints are unheard of and when you have some problems with your schedule or maybe you need some documents to take care of, students are only given satisfactory service if and only if you have your parents with you. It’s an anomaly, really, of the school’s system. With your parents, you’re serviced promptly; face them alone and be prepared to come back for three days just to process you request.

The professors are pretty much alright. But of course, every campus have terror teachers; those professors whose class you just want to skip, those professors whose paths you don’t want to cross, those professors whose heads you just wanna rip off. But they’re just the usual student hazard. There are even those professors that, throughout the four years, stick with you and become the mentors you least expected but are lucky to have.

There’s also the full load of classes.

The endless, piled up school work.

The stress of clinical duties.

The annoyingly irate patients.

The sleepless nights.

The exhausting days.

Family.

Friends.

Love.

Literature.

The pleasures of being a teenager.

God.

Though not in particular order, you have all these to keep in mind; to keep in careful balance.

But even with all these, I found myself in the midst of great friends, supportive parents and an everyday of blissful teenage shenanigans.

I was happy.

It made me nostalgic, thinking about what I’m leaving behind and moving on to bigger and better things. I’ve made it through college. In two months’ time, I’d be taking the Nursing Licensure Exam, and then pretty soon I’d be looking for a job.

Welcome to Reality.

But then again, I wouldn’t have made it this far without all of them.

To God, who kept me guided through all the rough patches and blessed me with the people that made everything worthwhile.

To my parents, who gave me all the love, guidance and support a daughter could ever ask for.

To my mentors, who imparted a great deal of wisdom.

To my crazy friends, who stood by me through thick and thin.

To the boy who made me fall in love, who made my everyday brighter.

To literature and writing, that kept me sane through all the madness.

It is my heartfelt gratitude to have all of you in my life.

Like I said, college hadn’t been easy. It had held so many memorable experiences, so many happy times, so many tears shed, so much laughter shared, so may stupid things done, so many mistakes made, so many lessons learned…

Too many things to be thankful for.