Nurse on the Run

So when I was back home in Chicago earlier this week, I took the liberty of going through my bedroom closet.  Although I no longer have any clothes hanging on the rack, my belongings are slowly becoming smaller and smaller as I get rid of stuff when I’m home, or if my mom downsizes for me.  It’s funny to see all of your high school (and some college) belongings all contained in a few boxes.  Certain pictures and trinkets that once were so important no longer seem all that exciting, yet they’re still hard to part with.  So they stay in the boxes in my parents’ house, waiting for a day when I either get totally sick of them, my mom throws them out, or I take them with me when I live in more than a shoebox apartment.

It’s always a bit of a nerve-wracking experience to open my closet and go through the contents.  Who knows what I’m going to find!  Am I going to have fond memories attached?  Will it be embarrassing?  I mean, I know how much of a nerd I was in high school, and I’m okay with it…but you never know.

Here’s a little bit of a peak inside my old closet…

1.  High school yearbooks.  It was funny to find these and see what some people wrote, many people say, “Keep in touch!” in my senior year book…pretty sure I haven’t talked to 90% of them since graduation.

No pictures allowed.

2.  MCAT books.  My “omg should I be a doctor??” debates are pre-blog, but let’s just say that they went on for a few years.  Although I’m not totally sure I’m sold on the idea of being a nurse for forever, I’m very happy in my decision not to pursue a career in medicine.  Also happy about the fact that I made this decision before taking the MCAT.

Sure this would have been fun…

3.  My nursing school degree.  Oh hey, I like you so much that it sits in my closet.  Oops.

Summa Cum Laude.  That’s cool.

4.  Organic chemistry flashcards.  Organic chemistry (aka “orgo”) strikes fear in the eyes of most students, but I managed to grab it by the horns by having week-long study sessions prior to every single exam, and even managed an A+ second semester.  I used to be able to recite, explain, and draw every reaction on the stack of probably about 100 flashcards.  I don’t really know what they mean anymore, but I’ll keep them in my closet just in case.

Color-coded, too!  Nerd alert.

5.  My serving book from Egg Harbor.  Complete with what I’m assuming were the specials from my last day of work, and even orders that I took!  Messy server shorthand.   My apron from work there is actually in my dresser in NYC.

Who wants pancakes??

unpictured:

• My hair.  Little known fact:  I used to have hair down to my knees, and when I got my first haircut at age 13, my mom saved the first chop that they did…nearly two feet of hair.  Totally normal.
• My first grade report.  It was a story I wrote on a trip to Mars.  I colored an astronaut on the cover.
• High school race times.  I was slower than I thought, yikes!
• My junior year English paper.  It was such a big deal at the time.  Silly silly.
• Junior high science fair project.  “Which battery lasts the longest?”  Answer:  Energizer.  (Like the bunny, Elyssa!)

So many goodies, and that was just the beginning.  I’m not sure what I would have found if I had had the time to dig a little bit deeper.  The sad part is that I was hoping to find the bib from the Marine Corps Marathon, which was my first back in 2006.  It’ll turn up one of these days!

Any comments on what might be in your old closet?  I can be a scary place!  My first pair of racing spikes are in the basement as well, I think it’s time to part with those…