sweet freedom

Finally, the semester is over! I'm done with finals and ATI testing for now. This has been the freakin', longest semester I have had in my six years of college. I have a whole month off; no tests or lectures, no getting up early for clinicals, no bathing dirty, old men. I'm so ready to graduate; I'm getting too old for this. But I've learned a lot of cool (and not so cool) stuff and had some great experiences this semester. I learned to give meds, shots, IV, enemas (yeah, that was fun; large woman hadn't crapped for three days, boy she ate a lot of corn), insert catheters, gave bed baths, got yelled at by anxious family members of a patient, got to watch my first endoscopy/colonoscopy (and I noticed the first polyp before the dr. did, pretty exciting, he gave me bonus points), do wound changes, worked with isolation patients, used "therapeutic communication" with psych. patients, helped with activities in the psych. ward, and learned a lot about different illnesses/diseases and psych. disorders. Man, I love this stuff! I also had some 'I'll treasure this moment forever' experiences, but I think I'll keep those to myself. It's hard to explain how God works on your heart when you are helping someone so fragile.
Plans for Christmas break? Hang out with friends that I have unfortunately neglected all semester, go out dancing, pick up extra hours at work, try to get a job at Children's Hospital, possibly go to Chicago with some friends, sleep, pick up my guitar again (it's been collecting dust since I started nursing school), paint, make/sell my jewelry, re-vamp my blog, hang out with my fam, and enjoy my momentary freedom from books. But currently, it's snowing outside, and I feel a snow angel coming on or possibly some sledding...