Since graduating with my bachelor’s degree I began applying for PA school in Colorado. It seemed to be the best path to take in order to meet myself halfway. I no longer wanted to pursue a surgical career upon returning from Bolivia but my soul was built for healthcare. I wanted to make enough money to support myself at a level I desired and also have the enhanced capacity to help others in need. Long story short I applied the first time and got wait-listed. I believe I made it from position #7 to #4 before classes started and I held out hope until the night before it started. No such luck! They all showed up much to my dismay. I applied another round, with the support of my lovely surgical tech teacher, NP mentor/friend, and a lovely PA in the ER I worked in doing registration. Unfortunately I didn’t realize until after the fact that the school had added Cell & Molecular biology to the pre-req list since my wait-listing. I had withdrawn from that class! I didn’t even realize it until my application was denied and I was crushed. A new PA program at the DO school in Colorado opened so I applied to that, excited for an alternative option, and didn’t even get an interview. After 8 years chipping away at a degree and all the stress that came with it I felt defeated. What would I do? Apply a 3rd time? Try and re-think a surgical career and start my practice super old? I was upset and my mind was swirling with alternative ideas to succeed. I just couldn’t resign myself to unskilled labor being buried in undergraduate debt. I HAD to get into a graduate healthcare career and I had no interest in anything but patient care.

My PA mentor saw my frustrations and felt my pain as she had advised me since application #1. She encouraged me to think outside the box, perhaps pursue nursing. I was always adamantly against the idea of doing an entirely new undergraduate degree after all of my hard work. I also had maxed out on undergraduate loans because life required I kept my refunds and I did the extra certificate program on top of 144 undergrad credit hours! She told me to research and think about it. She had in mind going the traditional route, becoming a BSN, and going from there. I had my mind set on being a medical provider and sooner rather than later so my search needed to go further. That is when I discovered graduate entry nursing programs. I was turned off at first by the idea of getting an entire masters degree just to work as an entry level RN, no additional qualifications awarded but twice the amount of debt I already had. Then I saw it and the angels sang and the fireworks went off and I had all the clarity in the world! Graduate entry nurse practitioner programs. I researched my heart out with 2 deal breakers in mind. It HAD to be coded as a fully graduate program so I could get financial aid, dual degree programs wouldn’t work as paying out of pocket was not an option. It had to be one program that ended in me being 100% done with the FNP path. Signed sealed and delivered. I didn’t want to have to reapply to future programs and deal with the stress of admissions ever again. And there I had it. Two states, Boston and California were the only states innovative and proactive enough to create graduate entry nurse practitioner programs that were meant to admit a person with a bachelor’s in any other area plus prerequisites and shape them into NP’s of various specialties. My plan was to be persistent and thorough. While I would rather get in on my first try I was mentally prepared to apply to each and every one, more than once if necessary. I made a spreadsheet of all the pertinent deadlines and started working on requirements, oftentimes quite costly ones. I started with Azusa Pacific University. I loved everything I read and they had both specialties I had an interest in. Family nurse practitioner as well as psych nurse practitioner. I also applied to Samuel Merritt University. I figured if I didn’t get in to either I would move forward with others from there. I landed interviews to both. Azusa did a phone interview and while I waited for a response Samuel Merritt asked for an in person interview. I booked my flights and hotels ready to put all I had into both making sure I didn’t burn bridges. Before the date of my interview with Samuel Merritt I got a curious email. It said a student portal account had been created for me. This made absolutely no sense as I had not even heard back from the program. When I logged in it showed Graduate Nursing Fall 2019 under “My Program”, I made a nervous phone call to someone in the office and asked if there was any chance there could be a glitch and that this didn’t mean I got in. She said it would be extremely unlikely for a login to be created if someone was not admitted and that I could be fairly sure I was in. I said thank you and hung up. After all of the fear and doubt, years of struggle, 2 of which being spent just trying to get a chance to prove myself, a yes from graduate admissions boards, because I knew I deserved my chance, guess what I did? I flew off my office chair and darted down the emergency room hallway in tears directly toward “my” PA mentor. Guess what guess what guess what!!!!! Two of the other PA’s there were also aware of the struggle and persistence and could see it in my face. I explained while weeping happy tears of relief all about the accidental leak of admissions status and was greeted with hugs and emphatic congratulations. Fast forward over a week and I received my acceptance letter aka permission to officially tell everyone I knew. That was the highlight of YEARS of my life.

Fast forward almost a year and here I am nervously, anxiously, and stressfully preparing to start classes on August 26th. I am moving out of my house this month, getting all of my health requirements done from immunizations to BLS class, and scouring the internet for rentals in San Bernardino. I never thought I would leave Colorado much less move to California but here I go! My brother is situated in Greeley at his division one school living his best college life with his full ride football scholarship and my sister is coming to complete her senior year of high school with me in Cali. I am working hard to have everything as stress minimal as possible before the first day of classes and am super eager to start my journey toward being a…duh duh duh….family nurse practitioner secondarily certified as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner! Wish me luck guys! I will make my best effort to blog about school, tips on admissions, picking a path, toughing it out when life gets hard, and the lighter sides of life as my new chapter unfolds. This will be the first time since turning 21 and getting the awful news about mom that I will be free to discover myself without dependents. I will be experiencing adulthood as a free bird for the first time, with so much less stress and can turn my focus to my career and my well being alone, and I’ll tell you what! I am STOKED about it.