A New Year 2010!

Wow it has been a very good 2009 year. I graduated in Spring 2009 from University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Nursing with my bachelors of science in nursing (BSN). Soon after, around 6 weeks I received my RN license! Then I got into the Family Nurse Practitioner program at the same university I graduated from. Couldn't find a job as a new grad so I did flu shots for an agency. I also got hired as a graduate assistant to help me with my tuition and make some money on the side.

My girlfriend Kathryn was still in Kauai and she was working hard to look for jobs in various hospitals who were willing to hire new grads. However, at this time of economic hardship, it was pretty much like, NO LUCK for both of us. Some of our classmates did get jobs, but that was probably because they did their last semester of complex nursing at the unit or they know someone, or they worked on the unit as a nurse aide for a long time while in undergrad nursing school. She's making money for the time being at a movie theater in Kauai and she's making more than a NA!

Anyway, I've noticed I was the only one who pursued graduate school soon after getting a BSN. People thought I was crazy and I think of myself as the same. While everyone else is making money, becoming officers in the military, I decided to do the crazy thing. Continue to grad school and stay as a poor college student with federal loans. It's the good thing my graduate assistantship job in the simulation learning lab is waiving my tuition and giving me a monthly $800 stipend + medical/vision/dental. It's something, right? You're damn right it is. Sometimes I think it's not enough money aside from the benefits, so I did some flu/H1N1 shot administration in schools and around the community for an agency on the side. Though I'm getting my tuition waived, the admin fees, books, gas, food, cell phone bills, and truck maintenance really add up to making me go over than what I make even with the student loans no matter how hard I try to save it to use it for school supplies and travel to school. I drive a V6 toyota tacoma 2004 and it really eats gas. I could take the bus but from where I live, the buses that go closes to the university leaves before 6AM! WTF? Well, I'm working hard to finish school again.

I'm looking into the Air Force or Navy active duty as a Family Nurse Practitioner. Anybody has any thoughts?