What up friends and family!

Wow, it's been 4 whole years since I've posted on here! I've decided I need to start posting again. I was looking back through my old Xanga and Blogger posts today and it was a lot of fun reliving past events, some of them big and exciting, but many of which I had completely forgotten. It's kinda cool to go back and read about all the everyday, trivial things that happened back then that would otherwise be lost if I hadn't happened to blog about random little details and occurrences. So I'm gonna try to start blogging again.

So, lots of catching up to do here. In case you didn't know, I graduated from college in May 2013, took the great big intimidating NCLEX that July, and whaddaya know, I'm a nurse now. :-) But I'm getting ahead of myself. Following graduation in May were some of the most frustrating and uncertain months I've ever experienced. Beginning in February-ish, before I graduated, I had begun applying to several different hospitals in North Carolina, optimistic that after graduating I would find a job in Durham or Raleigh and be back near my family who I adore. As graduation approached many of my friends began going for interviews, and several of them accepted jobs before even graduating. While genuinely happy and excited for them, I was also getting worried because I wasn't hearing back from any of the placed I applied. Graduation came and went, and the months following were simultaneously relaxing and stressful. Relaxing because I was finally DONE with school-- such a great feeling! But also incredibly stressful because I continued to search unsuccessfully for a job, and I also had the NCLEX hanging over my head like a great big rain cloud that constantly followed me around everywhere I went and rained on my head every time I wanted to do something fun.

(Sidenote: If you're reading this, Bethany, take the NCLEX as soon as possible after graduation! I originally signed up to take it late-June, but I kept postponing it because I was nervous and scared and didn't feel ready. Looking back, no matter how much studying I did, it wouldn't have made a difference because ultimately there are going to be lots of questions you just don't know the answer to and have to make your best guess. And in school you get lots of practice making educated guesses. It would have saved me a month's worth of anxiety if I had just taken it right away and gotten it over with.)

Okay, where was I going with that? Oh yes, in the meantime I was applying many different places in NC and either hearing that I didn't get it or not hearing back at all. Very frustrating time. I grudgingly decided to start applying to places in VA. Not my preference because my plan all along had been to move back home for a year or so so I could pay off my loans as quickly as possible, but by this point I was getting desperate, loan repayments were about to kick in, and I simply had to get a job. The idea of moving to VA, although scary, was also exciting in a way. In October I went to the State Fair with Hannah and Catherine, and while there I got my very first call back for an interview! Super exciting. This interview was at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. The drive up to Roanoke was absolutely beautiful; the mountains were breathtaking and the leaves were at the peak of changing colors, and I fell in love with the area. Long story short, I didn't get that job, but I did drive back up a couple weeks later for several more interviews and in December I *drumroll please* officially accepted a job as an RN on a Med-Surg unit! Woohoo. And thus ended the frustrating months of job hunting. Annndd.... thus began the slightly scary month of preparing to move away from home.

To be continued.... :-)