Graduation!!!
So major life event alert! I graduated with my doctorate in nursing practice!
It's been a crazy ride. It's something I never thought I would actually achieve and I am proud to be the first person in the extended Riederer family to achieve a doctoral degree.
My Graduate School Journey
Fall 2018
I started in Fall 2018 and that was easily my worst semester of the whole program. I had bitten off way more than I could chew. I was working full time and going to school full time. I did not realize the time commitment that graduate school would take. On top of all the school stress my grandmother's health rapidly declined and she died right at the end of my first semester. I felt super guilty (and still do) that I didn't take time away from school to go up there and see her. On the day of my last final Max's brother crashed his moped and ended up in intermediate care for a head injury and I thought that was the icing on the cake of this whole terrible semester. Needless to say, I was ready to be done with that semester and I rewarded myself with Hamilton tickets in Chicago.
The best thing to happen to me that first semester was meeting Miranda. I met her on the first day of pharmacology and we realized that we studied well together. We worked together on study guides and helped each other understand pharm. I was super happy to see that she was going to be in my next class Management 1 next semester.
Spring 2019
2019 was a way better year for me. I dropped down to part time at work which made school and my personal life way more manageable. This sounds really terrible but I actually found that I was a lot happier despite devoting more time to school because I wasn't working as much and I could have more of a consistent routine. Miranda, Lauren and I conquered Management 1 in Spring 2019.
Summer 2019
I took 2 classes over the summer and got to take a class with my friend Mary who I was in a group project with in Fall. It was fun because I got to meet her in person!!! Also in case you can't tell from the photo I chopped 10 inches off my hair that summer- then immediately missed my long hair.
Fall 2019
In Fall Max and I travelled to Germany to see my host sister Laura get married. I was super anxious about it- but it ended up being the perfect semester to do it. I only missed one test and Miranda covered for me. I payed her back when she missed a test because she got married later that semester. We finished Management 2 strong that semester! We were onto starting our DNP project and our clinical next summer.
Miranda, Lauren and I on our last day of Management 2
Spring 2020
2020. Need I say more. Our semester started out ok- it was fairly stressful because we were making up parts of our DNP project on the fly. Then the pandemic hit. I remember working the weekend that the pandemic got crazy and thinking "am I still going to have a midterm next week?". The answer was no, it got rescheduled and our DNP project got thrown to the wayside. The biggest stressor was clinical. Miranda and I were due to start them in June. We were told multiple times "we cannot guarantee that you will graduate on time now." I was devastated- we had worked so hard
Summer 2020
While we didn't officially start clinical in June we were allowed to start in July. That's when I met Hannah-one of my biggest blessings from this experience in addition to Miranda. Hannah was my preceptor at Prompt Care in Bloomington. She gave me the biggest push I needed to be successful while being an amazing cheerleader and teacher. I felt like a sponge the entire time I was with her I was just trying to soak up all all the knowledge she was giving me and trying to store it all in my brain.
Fall 2020
Clinical sites were hard to come by in Fall and my teacher asked if Hannah would take me on in Fall and I was thrilled that she was able to. Compared to some of my peers I was seeing way more patients and having way more fun :) I would say Fall 2020 was my second hardest semester because I was trying to obtain as many clinical hours as possible because covid was just so unpredictable and I didn't know if or when I would get kicked out if it got bad again. I was doing 2 12's a week with Hannah and 2 12s a week in PACU. I finished my hours for Fall semester right around Halloween and I was told I could count additional hours for Spring so I just kept going with Hannah until Christmas. I'm glad I was able to do that because I learned so much from her. While it was a pain to drive to Bloomington, I miss seeing her on a regular basis and treating patients in prompt care.
Spring 2021
Spring 2021- Wohoo last semester. I just tried to finish strong. I was at a clinical in Springfield, which was nice because the drive time was significantly less and while I did like my preceptor and thought she was cool, she was no Hannah. Thankfully I didn't have that many hours to do and I finished my hours in March. The majority of this semester was spent studying for boards, trying to salvage something to put together for my DNP project and packing up my entire house to put on the market. In April I presented my DNP poster and I was done with school work!!!
Then FINALLY, May 8th came. I was really happy that we were able to do it "in person" It wasn't a technical ceremony, but at least we got to walk and do it for ourselves and our families that supported us. The plus side is that I didn't have sit through any silly speeches about being your best self. Plus it was live streamed so my brother in Spain got to see it in addition to relatives all over the USA.
Nicole, thank you for the thank you. You are on your way now to your new endeavor. Safe travels and I hope you love it. Best wishes and we all will miss you and Max.
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