On Friday, March 9, I woke up and drove to the Weight Watchers center to weigh-in. Then, it became official. I lost my first 20 pounds in 2012! This number is significant for a few reasons. I've never lost 20 pounds before in my life. Granted, I never needed to lose any weight before I turned 30, and I didn't have that much to lose the first few years of my 30s. Still, I have needed to lose at least 20 pounds for nearly the past three years now, so I feel this is a huge accomplishment.
What comes with losing 20 pounds is having your "fat" jeans become too big for you. I pulled out an older, smaller pair of jeans, and while they are a little tight, they look pretty good! To celebrate I went out to buy something nicer for an Accepted Student Reception I was attending this weekend, and found i've dropped nearly two pant sizes. I feel different - stronger, lighter. More importantly, I feel like i'm never going to go back to the weight I was - moving forward only.
My next goal is to lose a total of 30 pounds by the Broad Street Run in the beginning of May. I'm confident i'm going to be able to do this - and I can't wait to enjoy the results!
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Friday, March 02, 2012
Change as quickly as the direction of the wind
I got a good chuckle as I just logged in and read my last post. Just a month ago, I stated I had decided to take some time off from School come May. Now, this couldn't be further from the truth. In May, I will begin an accelerated BSN/MSN program at a reputable University in Philadelphia - the first 12 months will be the most intense with approximately 16 hours a week of didactic courses, 24 clinical hours per week, in addition to all the time spent on homework, maintaining a certain GPA in order to remain in the program.
I had sent in applications to some schools for similar second degree nursing programs in the fall, not really sure if this is the direction I wanted to go in, but I wanted it to remain an option. In the months since then, I went back and forth a million times as to what the right path would be for me - medical school, nursing school, PT or PA school, law school, film school, moving to LA, moving back to NY. I was driving myself crazy trying to evaluate what every decision would mean financially, socially, spiritually, and mentally. What would make me happiest? How could I know?
I had submitted my application back in October to this University, and sent my transcripts from the fall semester in early January. In February, I received a request for an interview. The following week, I went to this interview and was accepted to the program 24 hours later (February 17th to be exact). All the months agonizing over what i'm going to do with my life came to an end. When I received that acceptance notification, I just knew this is what I was going to do. It felt right. I immediately felt at peace.
I began to realize my ego and my concern about how others would perceive me was driving my unhappiness and affecting my decision process. Its something a confident person wouldn't be concerned with, yet I have become a more insecure person over the past few years, compromising too much of myself to try to make a relationship work. I realized how pursuing a career in nursing is the perfect fit in regards to everything i'm looking for in life. I want to use my knowledge of science. I want to work with people and feel like what I do somehow contributes to the greater good. I want to be able to support myself financially and have the ability to enjoy life by doing things I greatly enjoy, like sporting events and travel. I want to have time to myself to enjoy all these things, which means I don't want to have to work 80 hours a week. I want the ability to explore different options within my career path, because I know i'm someone who likes to change things up and look for a new way to expand on my knowledge and my practice. A career in nursing (and more specifically as a Nurse Practitioner) will afford me all these things.
Most importantly, if everything goes according to plan, in just over a year, I can begin looking for work and finish the graduate portion of my program part-time, allowing me to become more financially independent sooner, which means being able to move back into my condo in the city sooner. This is huge. It feels like finally, everything is falling into place.
I had sent in applications to some schools for similar second degree nursing programs in the fall, not really sure if this is the direction I wanted to go in, but I wanted it to remain an option. In the months since then, I went back and forth a million times as to what the right path would be for me - medical school, nursing school, PT or PA school, law school, film school, moving to LA, moving back to NY. I was driving myself crazy trying to evaluate what every decision would mean financially, socially, spiritually, and mentally. What would make me happiest? How could I know?
I had submitted my application back in October to this University, and sent my transcripts from the fall semester in early January. In February, I received a request for an interview. The following week, I went to this interview and was accepted to the program 24 hours later (February 17th to be exact). All the months agonizing over what i'm going to do with my life came to an end. When I received that acceptance notification, I just knew this is what I was going to do. It felt right. I immediately felt at peace.
I began to realize my ego and my concern about how others would perceive me was driving my unhappiness and affecting my decision process. Its something a confident person wouldn't be concerned with, yet I have become a more insecure person over the past few years, compromising too much of myself to try to make a relationship work. I realized how pursuing a career in nursing is the perfect fit in regards to everything i'm looking for in life. I want to use my knowledge of science. I want to work with people and feel like what I do somehow contributes to the greater good. I want to be able to support myself financially and have the ability to enjoy life by doing things I greatly enjoy, like sporting events and travel. I want to have time to myself to enjoy all these things, which means I don't want to have to work 80 hours a week. I want the ability to explore different options within my career path, because I know i'm someone who likes to change things up and look for a new way to expand on my knowledge and my practice. A career in nursing (and more specifically as a Nurse Practitioner) will afford me all these things.
Most importantly, if everything goes according to plan, in just over a year, I can begin looking for work and finish the graduate portion of my program part-time, allowing me to become more financially independent sooner, which means being able to move back into my condo in the city sooner. This is huge. It feels like finally, everything is falling into place.
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