I just finished a visit with a longtime friend. Of course, we reminisced about nursing school.

We met the first week of nursing school, over 40 years ago (OMG, when did that happen?), when we and some other classmates went to buy books. She took one look at the crowd and came up with an organized and efficient approach to getting what we needed in the overcrowded college book store. She would grab four biology texts, I’d get the lab manuals, Betty would pick up the history texts, Kathy would head for the English section—and then we’d all meet at the cashier. We were in and out in no time.

During nursing school, we had many late-night tea parties, grilling each other on med/surg questions. Pharmacology was the class we all feared—it was largely a matter of memorization; we shared mnemonics and tricks for remembering drugs and dosages, and the night before the final pulled an “all-nighter” with lots of coffee, pacing up and down and citing drug facts out loud.

And when some of us had doubts, after a hard semester, if nursing was really a good choice, we bucked each other up. And that continues to this day—we continue to support each other, with everything from referrals to medical specialists to passing along our children’s résumés.

I often marvel at the accomplished women my college friends have become.

They’ve gone on to fulfilling nursing careers in every nursing setting, and to a few in positions we never even thought about: foundation CEO, international consultant, and yes, there are a couple of editors too. For most of us, nursing opened doors we never thought of those many years ago. I wish the freshman class of 2019 a wonderful journey discovering nursing and themselves.

My advice to new students embarking on nursing:

  • Get used to LOTS of reading, and do it every night. Don’t wait until the weekend to catch up (you won’t).
  • Talk to people you might normally not talk to. Don’t always sit with the same people.
  • Talk to upperclass students. They can give you good advice about teachers and classes.
  • Take advantage of every opportunity to learn/visit/participate/try something; say yes more than no.
  • If you got accepted into nursing school, you can do it. Find some good friends to help you through.