2012-Here we go! Hmmm, Shall I look back and reflect or look ahead and ponder? If I look back, I can see how fast a year can fly! Seems I was just at my brother and sis-in-law's new lake house celebrating 2011 with them and it was the first New Years Eve party we had been to in years! We usually just stay home like we did tonite.Looking back to 2011, I was in a job that for 2 years had pretty much taken the wind out of my sails. I worked part time doing things that no nurse should ever do~ sit at a desk for hours and hours and answer phones and read charts and direct traffic and transfers and work with some of the best and worst nurses I have ever met in my 30+ career! The "most miserable" of men and women, for sure.
So how does one get to this point?
Well let's see...I thought it was because I was "broken". I had taken too many hits to my body, the last one sent me flying into a wall because I tripped over a wheelchair that wasn't there 2 seconds before. I remember being on the ground and not caring if there were any broken bones or bruises...I just wanted up and out and after some visitor helped me up, I refused to go to the ER...I have this thing-I will walk away on broken bones if I have to but I will NOT become the injured. Funny thing about it is, that my body felt the impact a few short days later. And as I had said several times before...I'm gettin too old for this shit-I gotta get outta this place, the frontlines are killing me. I had been at the bedside battlefield for many years and had injured my back and various other bones and muscles in my body and it was time to retire them to the dreaded desk job. I had done this before and hated it, but this time I felt I had no choice so I willingly took a transition job.
What were those nurses so damn serious and miserable about? No crash carts, nobody's life hanging in the balance. I can truly say that I hated that job and it was no secret. I was constantly looking for a new job and I had my eyes set on one in the promised land. I had applied for the job I wanted three times and the charm finally worked in February 2012. I left Purgatory and arrived at Heaven's Gate. I no longer felt like a step-child or orphan. I had a home of my own: my computer, my chair, my desk, my phone, my everything and I hate to admit it but the job I hated actually prepared me for the job I love. Who knew?
Can you imagine working in a place that you feel welcome? Or you are treated like a professional? A place where the perks are many and the pains are few.I have arrived and I will stay here and be happy here and retire from here in the next several years.
So job-wise 2012 was a great year to say the least.
Why should one person be so lucky as to have a great job and wonderful home all in the same place anyway?? That would actually mean that I could be happy 24 hrs a day! your job? 8hrs a day, your home? another 8hrs a day and the other 8? sleep, wonderful sleep, for the most part anyway. I can look back and say I gained a great job and lost a beautiful home but what I have not talked about is the fact that I have kept closest to my heart, the love of family and friends and that is the greatest gift of all.For 2012 I want to remain happy at my job and learn to be happy in my home here and maintain the love of family and friends. I would like to take better care of myself but I have broken that promise to myself too many times so we'll see. Last year, I actually made a resolution that I knew I could keep: I would gain weight! and by Golly, I did it! I did not disappoint myself that way. It was really easy! So I resolve to do something that I know I can do again this year and that is to be thankful, first for my family and friends and then for my job and then for my home and then I will hope that I will love myself enough to take care of me for a change, but I can't make any promises about that one...
