Today’s Daily Prompt

When I was younger I dreamed of becoming a pediatrician. I loved the idea of helping sick kids feel better. As a kid, I was usually sick and spent much of my childhood in and out of the hospitial. As I got older, my health got a little better, and the only time I’d visit the doctor was for check ups. By middle school, I had my whole life planned out, I’d go to college, go to med school, and become a pediatrician. In high school I took many health related classes and was gearing up for college. I chose nursing as my major and began taking the required classes. Everything was going good until I took general chemistry. The class was down right AWFUL. I did not do well, and as per our program requirements, I had to repeat the class. Not only that, but I would lose points toward my ranking score for having to retake the class. I did better the second time. The next class that gave me trouble was human anatomy & physiology. Wooh, that class was worse than chemistry. I did not do well in that class either. By this time, I had taken the NLN-Pax and did not do well on that. I was still trying hard though. Coming into the Fall 2013 school year, I met with my advisor and was told some devestating news. By this time I had 90+ credits. If I continued on in the major, I would go over the 140 credit limit, since nursing school itself was 60+ credits. If students surpassed 140 credit hours, they would garner a tuition surcharge. A tuition surcharge will require the student to pay out of pocket for any class they take past the 140 credit limit.  I was so angry, here I spent 3 years trying to make my dream come true and I was being told that it may not be possible. I had  basically wasted 3 years of my life. The switch to a new major was also a daunting task. I had to find a program that would accept the courses I had been taking and would enable me to graduate without a tuition surcharge. I considered other health related majors, but those would require more science courses, and some didn’t accept the credits from the classes I had already taken. While taking the prerequisite nursing classes, I was also taking criminal justice classes. My plan when I entered college was to be a nursing major and a criminal justice minor. I talked with the advisor who signed me up for the upper level justice courses I was taking and asked if the switch would be possible. I then went to my nursing advisor and asked her the same questions. Switching to criminal justice would let me keep the credits I already had and I would be able to graduate without a tuition surcharge. I made the switch and became a criminal justice major. It has been two semesters since I changed my major and I feel a little better. I am set to graduate this December. I am looking into going into probation and parole, then after some years I may apply to law school. There were some times where I thought I would have been better off not going to college at all or dropping out after getting that news, but then I look at all I did to get to this point and I feel like I would be letting myself down if I quit now. Although it remains a daily struggle to stay motivated, I will continue on this path until I get what I want.