Ever since I can remember, I always wanted a Jeep Wrangler. For some reason, that was always the car that I wanted to drive. I felt like maybe it embodied some of what I feel about life, this free spirit and this outdoorsy and all that, so ever since I was a kid, I remember wanting a Jeep Wrangler, and about … When was it? In October or November, we got a Jeep Wrangler. I was able to get a Jeep Wrangler, and my wife actually went and picked it up for me, and she bought it and drove it home, and she told me, the whole way home, people kept waving at her. People kept raising their hand and waving at her the whole time she’s driving this Jeep home. She got home pretty late at night. We drove it around a little bit, and I was like a little boy with a new toy. I was so excited that I got to have this Jeep Wrangler.
Then, the next day, I went out and drove it around, in daylight, driving it to work and dropping the kids off at school and all that stuff. The whole time, people kept waving at me. I finally realized it was other Jeep owners waving at me. Every time I passed a Jeep, they would wave their hand. This was odd to me at first because, before this, we had driven a Honda Civic, and I’ve never had a single other Honda Civic owner wave at me or say, “Hey, love that Honda Civic, man,” or, “Nice gray paint on that Honda, bro.” That never happened. No one ever reached out and said, “Cool civic, dude.” Before that, we had a minivan, and that definitely never happened. It was never like driving down the street and be like, “Yo, bro, you drive a Dodge Caravan, too? That’s sweet, man. I drive a Dodge Caravan.” That never happened, but when we drove the Jeep and when we drive the Jeep, other Jeep owners just wave at each other, and now I get it, too. Every time I pass a Jeep, it’s in my mind to wave at them, so when I drive around in my wife’s Civic now and I pass a Jeep, I wave at them, and I realize it doesn’t have the same effect. They don’t want to wave at me when I’m in the Civic.
Let me tell you a quote, and I’m going to wrap this all together, I promise. There’s a quote by Napoleon Bonaparte that says, “A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.” “A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.” When I first heard that quote, it impacted me very strongly. Let me tell you why. Because I realized that there’s certain identities, there are certain things in our life that mean so much to us that we would fight long and hard for them. For Napoleon and his soldiers, it was the colors of the French flag. The French flag is no more than colored ribbon, red, white, and blue ribbon, but for his soldiers, that meant more than red, white, and blue ribbon. It meant their families, it meant their safety, it meant their security, it meant their freedom, but it was nothing more than a bit of colored ribbon. “A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.”
When we bought this Jeep, we did not realize at first that I wasn’t the only person who grew up wanting a Jeep. It felt like it meant something about them, that it was their identity. When I drove the Civic, there wasn’t a piece of my identity tied in that, but I had long wanted a Jeep because I felt like it meant something about me. It was that colored ribbon for me. It meant something for me, and it means something to all these other Jeep owners, and that’s why we wave at each other. We’re part of this club all of a sudden. Overnight, I became part of this club.
Being a nurse is the same thing. When you meet another nurse, it’s like you know everything about that person. You know and you feel that you can trust them, that you have similar stories, similar backgrounds, similar identities because they know that piece of you that means so much, which is being a nurse.
When we started NRSNG, we wanted to build the NRSNG family. That’s what means so much to us. Building this family of like-minded nurses and nursing students who know that nursing education must change, who knows that being a nurse and being a nursing student doesn’t have to be hell, but that we can love that process, that we can enjoy that process, that we can learn and understand this material so deeply that it becomes a part of us. That’s what the NRSNG family is all about. It’s about this community of collaboration, of loving nursing, not of wanting to just make it harder for others or not being catty. Being part of the NRSNG family means something. It means you’re a hard-working nursing student who knows that nursing education must change.
You guys, I want this NRSNG family to spread to every nursing school. I always wanted that. When I started this about 3-1/2, 4 years ago, I wanted that, as well, but, at that moment, it seemed impossible for that to ever happen, for this idea of changing nursing education to ever reach anything beyond a couple listeners, but when I posted that first podcast in 2014 on Halloween day actually, 2014, that message resonated, and we’ve built, you and I have built, this message of the necessity to change nursing education and the love of nursing and the passion for nursing. Thank you for being a part of that. I want this to continue to spread. If you’re listening to this podcast, NRSNG means something to you, and it means something to me, too, and it means so much to us that we want to see this message spread.
Here’s what I’m going to do. This isn’t something huge, but here’s what I want to do. We have a bunch of NRSNG stickers. They’re about 4 inches by 1 inch. They look really good on a laptop. They look good on notebooks. They look good on wherever you want to put it. I have them all over my house, and I have them all over everything because NRSNG, the gray and the blue, mean something to me, and I know they mean that same thing to you. Here’s what I want to do. If you email us, contact@NRSNG.com, contact NRSNG.com, I’m going to give away 50 of these stickers to the first 50 people who email us. You must live in the United States because shipping cost for that would just be ridiculous, and I know that’s going to hurt some people’s feelings, and I’m sorry, but shipping is something that we have to pay, so if you live in the US and you listen to this and you’re one of the first 50 people to email us, I want to get one of these stickers to to you for free. Email us with the subject line, Free NRSNG Sticker, Free NRSNG Sticker. Tell me your name. Tell me your address, and we will send one out to you. Let’s flood nursing schools with NRSNG stickers.
If we have enough left over after that, we’ll send some more out, so if you’re hearing this maybe a little bit later, just email us and ask. See if we have some more left, but if you would, put that sticker on your laptop. Get the NRSNG family, get the NRSNG message into nursing schools, you guys. This means so much to us. I promise you, you’re not the only one in your nursing program who’s part of the NRSNG family. There’s other people there, and as we share that message, other people are going to see it.
I’ve worn my Happy Nurse … I wear that Happy Nurse shirt all the time with the NRSNG logo and Happy Nurse, and people stop me all the time. “Hey, you’re a nurse,” and we talk and we share this message, and we share this passion for nursing. Let’s spread the NRSNG message. As this message continues to grow, we will see nursing education continue to change.
I love you guys. Thank you so much for being part of the NRSNG family. Thank you so much for helping to spread this message and to see this message grow day after day throughout the world. Love you guys. Make sure you go out and be your best selves today. Happy nursing.