Sitting on the kitchen counter were two envelopes each containing a life-altering option.
It was June 2010, my wife at the time, Sandi, and I were living with my in-laws, I was 27 years old and working as a retail associate at Academy Sports for $8.25 per hour while attending college part-time taking prerequisite courses to apply to medical school.
I had squeaked by with a B in Physics and started to think that maybe I wasn’t going to have the grades needed to attend Medical School. At the same time, I was getting pretty tired of life on the retail floor.
So we booked a two-week trip to New Zealand where we would drive around the South Island living in the back of a camper van. It was an amazing trip and we fell in love with the Tasman Sea and a beautiful whale-watching town named Kaikōura (so much so that we eventually named our children Tasman and Kai).
But back to the envelopes . . .
Before going to New Zealand I had applied to Nursing School and for a job at Academy Sports corporate office.
The envelopes were from the nursing school and the Academy corporate office.
Which should I open first?
I opened the one from the nursing school . . . I WAS ACCEPTED!
Next, the one from Academy Sports . . . I GOT THE JOB!
Oops . . . two amazing offers . . . two life-changing paths.
Which offer should I accept?
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After extensive thought, I decided to take the job and call the nursing school to defer my acceptance for a semester. I figured a job offer is here and gone the next day while school could be deferred.
If I loved the job - I could pass up school. If I hated the job - I could quit and go to school.
Long story short. I hated the job.
After one day, I knew it wasn’t for me.
So after 6 months of dreading going to work every morning - I quit and went to nursing school.
That single decision has perhaps had a bigger impact on my life than any other (with the exception of having children).
Now, I want to fast forward to 2013 . . . I was now in the 5th out of 5 semesters of nursing school.
I saw it out of the corner of my eye. A king-size mattress leaning against the dumpster.
“Score,” I thought to myself.
It was May 15, 2013, I had just completed the 12 hour, 773 mile drive from Allen, Texas to Peoria, Il earlier that day and was making preparations to start my final semester of an Accelerated Bachelors of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program.
Our second child, a daughter Kai, was born the day before back in Texas and I left the next day for Illinois.
I arrived in Illinois with my textbooks, backpack, clothes, and not much else. I’m not sure where I was planning to sleep as all I had brought was a blanket or two so when I saw the mattress, it felt like mana from heaven.
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I backed my dented Honda Civic up to the dumpster, got out, and inspected the mattress. Except for being wet from recent rain, it seemed in decent condition.
So I lugged it from behind the dumpster and with great effort heaved it on top of the Civic drove it through the apartment complex parking lot, backed it up to our building, and lugged it up two flights of stairs to its new home.
That is where I slept for the final semester of nursing school.
But let me rewind the clock to January 2011 . . .
Should You Drop Out of Nursing School or Why I Quit Nursing School [nursing school secrets]