Aspiring to Be in the NICU

Growing up and realizing I had to pick a career that I was going to be stuck in for
the rest of my life seemed very overwhelming. That put an immense amount of
stress for a child who has their whole life to decide. I thought I had an endless
amount of time to decide since I was only in middle school. My life changing
experience made me realize that time was actually something I had to worry about.
During middle school, my great grandparents were both battling with leukemia. I
would visit them at the hospital whenever I could. Prior to walking in the room I
would have to put on a mask and gown to prevent any bacteria from transferring
onto my great grandparents. It was very sad watching the cancer take over their
body. The nurses at the hospital did everything they could to help them but
unfortunately the cancer had beaten them. It seemed that the time it took for these
events to unfold were brief and upsetting. It wasn’t until then that I realized I
wanted to be a nurse. Watching my great grandparents suffer and being able to do
nothing about it invoked a sense of altruism in me. I wanted to take action and help
those in need.
The following year I was entering into high school. I was leaving a private middle
school and a private high school seemed to be the right decision. However, after
doing some research I found that Glen Burnie High School had a BioMedical
Allied Health Magnet program (BMAH). That was right up my ally and I knew
that was were I needed to go to pursue my career into becoming a nurse. After
having my transcript looked over and an interview, I was accepted into the
program. Throughout high school, I volunteered to go on many job shadows so I
could see exactly what I wanted to do in the nursing field.
The last job shadow I went on was to the Institute of Notre Dame. They had so
many stimulations for infants. There was a whole room dedicated to nursing
students who were studying to be in the NICU. That’s where I found my second
life changing moment
. As a senior, leaving high school, I know exactly what I want to be and study. I
started taking classes at Anne Arundel Community college on top of having a full
schedule at Glen Burnie High School, as well as being on the swim team so I can
get a head start on my career goals of a NICU Nurse.