What Would You Do If You Weren’t a Nurse?
“The further away I get from direct patient contact, the less I enjoy being a nurse.”
Last week was Nurses Week, and on its Facebook page, the American Journal of Nursing posted the question, “What would you do if you weren’t a nurse?”
It was not surprising to me that many nurses commented something to the effect of, “I don’t know. I like being a nurse.” Others, though, posted a variety of career choices, often unrelated to nursing, many of them in creative fields.
I did not grow up wanting to be a nurse.
The List Inkjet, collage, and water media on paper, by Julianna Paradisi 2018
When I was three years old, I wanted to be a horse. Once I realized it was impossible, I settled on becoming a ballerina. However, the small community where I grew up did not have a dance studio or classes, so this aspiration also fell to the wayside.
In junior high school, I decided I would become a writer. I already knew I was an artist; I’d known that before I wanted to be a horse. I’ve always drawn, and still do, nearly daily. I began writing and keeping journals in elementary school.
A librarian’s intuition.
When I was 15, […]
