Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, AJN interim editor-in-chief. Editor’s update: Shawn is now the editor-in-chief
I recently went away for a “girls’ weekend” with some old friends. We’ve known each other for over 40 years (where DID the years go?). We met as freshmen in college, all of us in the nursing program. We’ve stayed close friends, shoring each other up during bad times and celebrating the good times. We don’t see each other so often, but when we do, the essential personality traits of those fresh-faced nursing students emerge just as they were 40 year ago; we mesh together easily whenever we meet.
What came up over and over in our conversations was how lucky we all feel. Despite broken marriages, early widowhood, deaths, and other disappointments, we all acknowledged our feelings of gratefulness over where our lives have taken us. We all came from middle-class, working parents who saw education as the way to a better life. None of us is rich, though we all agree we are far more comfortable than our parents were. Our children seem to be well “on their way” and all are healthy (I think that is a big reason why we feel so lucky; we all know parents who’ve not been so fortunate).
In this economy, I feel very lucky. Not only am I lucky to have a job, but one I like. As a nurse, I’ve found a career that’s been stimulating, with a variety of jobs that have been immensely different. I’ve never been bored. I’m thankful for the education, the friends and colleagues I’ve met along the way.
That’s what I’ll be thinking about this Thanksgiving.
I am thankful for my family, my co-workers and the acceptance letter from the National Health Service Corp Service that will pay off 50,000 toward my student loans for the next two years at a job I love!