To Why I Chose Nursing by Joel

To Why I Chose Nursing by Joel - February 2024 Scholarship Essay

My brother grew up with asthma and my mother has heart problems. It felt like every year my siblings and I were sitting in a waiting room, waiting on one of them to recover.
Waiting in the lobby of those hospitals was always uneasy and at times scary. The bleach yellowish light in the lobbies, especially at night made the room eerily quiet and stretched out as if the room never ended. If my father had to leave us to check up on our mother, the room became all the more intimidating, as the oldest, I had to make sure none of my siblings had been plucked away or disappeared. Company didn’t make this better, anyone who came in, people we didn’t know just sat there, no words, no movement, they just sat.
I was tired. I was tired of sitting there, I was tired of not feeling anything. I didn’t know to feel sad or to feel bored or even happy. Was my mother or brother okay? I didn’t know. How long will it be? I don’t know. Don’t ask. Just wait and sit like dad said. Sit and watch your siblings.
We’d go home for a few hours and then come back to repeat the same episode of waiting. If we got the chance, our aunt would stay over and watch over us for a day or two, till my dad felt okay leaving my mother at the hospital. Other than that, we’d go back to sitting.
I guess I lied a little when I said company didn’t help. My siblings and I had a little bundle of joy in scrubs. These nurses would be bouncing down the halls, I’m guessing on their break or to another patient. “Sweetie”. The way my siblings and I would smile hearing that word. Those ladies could have been my aunty. All those snacks we would get from those ladies. Would have thought they were the witch in Hansel and Gretel plumping us up. It wasn’t just in the lobby that we saw them. When drawing up blood, changing solutions, doing anything on our family, these nurses just felt like an addition to the family. When did our aunt all of a sudden learn how to draw blood? I don’t think I’ve met a nurse who was not the sweetest person in the world (unfortunately I probably will in my future in the nursing field). Their character and perspective that they played for us whenever we were at the hospital despite the grim environment pushed me to pursue a career in the nursing field. I’d love to smile their beautiful smiles. I want to be someone’s bundle of joy in scrubs. And most importantly I don’t want anyone to feel alone like I used to in those lobbies. When I become a nurse. When.