Allyson's Blog

I only have two more clinical’s left and I can’t believe  it.  Everything has gone by so fast.  But, I have come to a few realizations. If someone works in an assisted care facility they need a lot of props.  All of the daily living tasks that the nurses have to help the residence with is very time consuming.  So being a student nurse in an assisted living care facility makes me feel like I am not only getting clinical experience but  I am also helping out the CNAs with their work at the same time.  All of the residence that I have taken care of have loved all of the special attention that they have been receiving by having one on one care. Secondly,if a patient tells you that they know what they are doing…. most of the time they are right (key word being most).  I have learned when it comes to their activities of daily living they are all very adamant about how everything is going to happen and when it is going to happen.  They have their favorite foods that they like to eat and their favorite shoes that they love to wear and favorite color that they love to wear because ”it make me look pretty”.  All of the residence have different quirks about them that I love and are starting to learn.  Whether it be the way you have to make their bed or the certain place they have to sit and eat when it is time for breakfast; like one women said: “I have to sit there [pointing to the certain spot at the table] so I can see my friends and the t.v at the same time”.  It is such a different experience than I imagined having my clinical at an assisted care facility.  I thought that all of the residence were going to be in the advance stages of dementia, but most of them aren’t.  Most of them are quite “with it” persay.  This experience has exceeded all of my expectation.  I enjoy it so much… now I know I have chosen the correct career path.

A nurse is compassion in scrubs” – Lexie Saige

The past few weeks have been very eventful, I started my first day of clinical and went to a Kelly Clarkson concert. 

The Kelly Clarkson concert was sooo much fun!! :] It was by far the best concert of hers that I have been to and I have been to 5 now 6.  I went with three of the girls that live in my quad: Monica, Lorin and Kim.  We also got to meet her which was wicked awesome :] I enjoyed that night so much.  Being at my idols concert with my best friends was so much fun.  What made me very happy was when ever I looked at them during the concert that were either singing the song or just rocking out even if they didn’t know the words to the song… and the best part was they weren’t embarrassed to be at the concert with me being the die-hard fan of hers that I am.  I was so proud of my t-shirt that I made too, it said “my life would suck without you Kelly” on the front and on the back it had her recent album cover picture on it.  So needless to say I had a great time :] I could say that so many more times….

Heading into clinical I was a little apprehensive, I wasn’t quite sure what we were going to do or how the residence were going to feel having sophomore nursing students helping them out with their daily routine.  But all of the residence were so happy to see us walk in with our whites on.  I enjoyed the experience and I can’t wait to go again this Tuesday.  Starting this Tuesday we are going to be given a resident to help.  So I will report back later next week to tell you all about that adventure :]

Just a few shout outs: HI MRS. MESSINA and VICKI!!!! :]

So i am now starting my 2nd week of classes of my sophomore year. it is crazy to think that i am a sophomore in college. i love all of my classes and my professors. this semester i am going to start clincials!!! i am so excited… so until october when clinicals start us sophomore nursing students have a super lab from 8am-12pm the day that our clinical would be on. today we had partners and we fed eachother food. it was so much fun. on thursday in lab we get to learn how to take the patients blood pressure. i am so nervous about that.

I am so happy to be back at school with all of my friends that i made last year. this year i am living with 7 of the girls there were on my floor last year. i loved starting school knowing that i was going to be able to see all of the friends that i made last year again. I am really lucky and one of the girls on my floor, Monica (who is a nursing major), is in my lab group so we are going to be able to be lab partners and we can practice on eachother all the time. i can guaranty you that everyone in our quad is going to hate having their blood pressure taken by the end of this semester…. :p

You think my life isn’t busy enough with school and working in admissions… and then lacrosse starts :p and i am also playing Intramural Softball :p i know you are thinking i am crazy like most people do. but i guess i thrive on being busy, i guess that is what keeps me sane (some would say it makes me insane also, it just depends who you ask). i was so excited when lacrosse started yesterday, it was great seeing all my team mates from last year and it was great meeting the new ones. now the team bonding starts, including the team dinners in the cafe after practices.

“Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.” ~Auguste Rodin

Wednesday night was my first college lacrosse game ever!! I was so excited all day I wasn’t able to contain myself.  Getting dressed in my uniform before my game made me so excited.  I just couldn’t believe that I had finally made it to the first game.  All of the tough practices that I went through really prepared me for that game. The bus ride was so exciting, everyone was getting hyped up.  When we got to the field the boys were still playing their game, so we got to watch. It was the first boys lacrosse game I had ever seen, and it was great to be able to cheer them on.  While the boys were playing, Jackie, one of the girls on my team, with her red camera in hand proposed that we play a game.  We all got together as a team in a clump and Jackie told us that something happened and we had to react to it and she took a picture. It was very entertaining and the pictures are pretty funny. Here are some of the pictures!

^ you just found out NSYNC is getting back together!

^ you just found out there is a plane about to crash behind you :0

^ you just found out that you have to eat jello for the rest of your life :p

^ lax team 09

To top off the whole experience, we won our first game!! 18-10!! Our next game is 6:15 vs Thomas at Deering Memorial Field. 

“It’s not the team with the best athletes; it’s the athlete’s with the best team.”

So three weeks from tomorrow is my first college Lacrosse game EVER!!!! I am both nervous and excited at the same time. I am nervous about the speed of the game being faster than it was in high school.  I am excited about being able to play a sport that I love at the college level. I love competitive sports.   I started out playing softball as a spring sport up until high school, then I decided that it was time for a change.  So the spring of my freshman year I decided to go out for the Lacrosse team, and I am glad that I did, because of I have now found a sport that I love.  But I had some reservations about playing it in college, like most college athletes do.  I thought that it would be difficult to play Lacrosse because of my full Nursing course load.  But, it isn’t bad at all.  The practice times fit perfectly with my schedule.  Since I started having Lacrosse practices at the end of January I have now developed better time management skills and more self discipline.

Tonight is the boy’s basketball teams first play off game.   I am so excited to watch it! I am going with a bunch of girls on my floor We are all decked out in our Blue and White to show our SJC spirit.  Going to boys basketball games are always entertaining.  GO MONKS!!!!

When you’re playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder. Show the world how much you’ll fight for the winners circle. If you do, someday the cellophane will crackle off a fresh pack, one that belongs to you, and the cards will be stacked in your favor.” -Pat Riley

Today was the first snow day of the school year.  I never really thought that colleges had snow days, but I guess they do!  I woke up at 6:45am and called the class cancelation hot-line and I heard that the college was closed and I was so excited.  After hearing that recording I went back to sleep and didn’t wake up til 10:00am.  It was pretty awesome.  The snow/sleat was coming down so hard.  I have been in my dorm room all day hanging out with the girls on my floor, doing homework and watching television. So far I think there is about maybe 12-15 inches of snow on top of the inches that we have ready had.  Before this storm we have gotten about 58 inches of snow and winter isn’t even over yet, which means that we beat our total (I believe) of 65 inches of snow last winter.

So I am going to finish watching my television show. Night!

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” – Lewis Carroll

So finals are coming up next week and I am kind of stressed.   I am not sure what the tests are going to be like or how hard they are going to be.  I am trying not to stress out.  I think what is mostly stressing me out is the fact that I have assignments and tests that are due close to the time of finals and the way I took finals in high school were different.  In high school I had 1 to 2 finals a day. I took 7 classes in high school, and the finals started on a Monday and lasted the whole week. It is not like here where they start on a Wednesday and end on Friday.  Something else that is different in college is that Tuesday before the start of finals, December 9th, is a Reading day.  Reading day is a day that you don’t have any classes and nothing is due for any class on that day, so you can devote your time to studying and getting everything prepared for your exams.  I am very excited for that day because my finals schedule, in my eyes, is kind of demanding.  I have my Anatomy and Physiology final and my Chemistry for the Health Science final on Wednesday the 10th and then I have my Western Civilization final and my College Writing final on Thursday the 11th.  Friday the 12th is also a day that students can take finals, but I don’t have any that day which means I am out for winter break at 2:00pm on Thursday the 11th.  Winter break is about a month long, if you play a sport in the winter, your break is cut short.  Being in college, I now know why college students have a month off. Preparing for finals is so much harder in college.

I am going to go study and get some things done before I got out to the movies with my friends tonight.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” -Elenanor Roosevelt

A few days before all of the upperclassmen came to school, the freshman had their own day to move in.  I had never seen so many cars in one spot at one time.  They were all full of everything you could possibly think of.  No laughing….. but, honestly, I had to bring two vehicles. Yeah, I know, funny.  I had the whole bed of my dad’s truck full, and the trunk and back seat of my Jetta filled; granted, the trunk of my car had only shirts on hangers in it.  I brought them that way instead of bringing a suit case, so all I had to do was take them out of the trunk and put them in the closet in my dorm room.   After taking about 2 hours, if not more to set up my room, I was off to the group activities for the day.  Before anything started we got our class of 2012 picture taken. I couldn’t believe how big our freshman class is.  Coming from a small, all girls, Catholic High School in Portland, ME any class bigger than my graduating class of 62 girls seems big.   But, even though my college class is larger than my graduating high school class, I wasn’t intimidated at all.  I knew that I was going to be able to become the nurse and the person that I wanted to be once I graduate college.

After that, we broke off into different groups, separated by the floor of each building, to start the scavenger hunt around campus.  We went everywhere and had different clues that would lead us to the next place.  We weren’t able to finish the whole scavenger hunt, because it was just too long and too spread out and we had other activities to attend.  But everything that we were able to do was fun.  I would tell you all of the different things that we did, but I don’t want to ruin yours for you if you end up coming here.  After the scavenger hunt we had dinner with other nursing majors.  We were able to meet with the faculty that would be teaching us throughout the years of our schooling and sit with other students in our major.  I had so much fun eating with the nursing teachers.  They were so nice and friendly, and they answered all of the questions that we had.  And they were also very eager to meet us.

Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” – Og Mandino

My best friend Sam and I

Okay, I was told to read the first book in the Twilight saga called Twilightby one of the girls on my floor, okay maybe not told, but she strongly suggested that I should.  I started reading it on Monday the 17th and once I got done with the first chapter I was addicted.  I wish I would have started reading it earlier.  The whole logic behind me starting to read the book was so that I would be able to compare it to the movie that just came out today!!!! And I can’t wait to go see it.  But I haven’t finished reading the book yet, I have 100 pages left.  But, I have fallen in love with Edward, one of the main characters!!!! I never thought that I could fall in love with a fictional character, but when I read the discription that the author, Stephaine Meyer, writes about him my heart just melted. And once you have read the book you will understand what I am talking about, or if you have already read the book you know what I am talking about.

This is what the back of the book says:

About three things I was absolutely positive.
First, Edward was a vampire.
Second, there was a part of him-
and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be-
that thirsted for my blood.
And third, I was unconditionaly and irrevocably in love with him.”

If that doesn’t make you want to read it, then maybe me saying READ IT, YOU WILL LOVE IT will make you read it.  And once you are done reading the first one you have 3 more to follow it up with.  I can’t wait til i am done with the first one to read the other 3.

Cover of the First Book

Movie Poster (Edward and Bella)

Hi, my name is Allyson Woods and I am a 19 year old freshman Nursing student at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine. I live in Portland, Maine and I went to Catherine McAuley High School, a private all girls Catholic school in Portland. Even though I live about 30 minutes from college, I do live on campus. I am hoping to play Lacrosse this spring. I work for admissions two days during the week as a student admissions assistant. As part of my job I give tours and work open houses. Working in admissions I hope to make an impression on perspective students just like my tour guide did. I hope by reading my blog you will get to know me more and understand what life as a freshman athlete and Nursing student is like.

P.S: To find more information about me you can click the about me link at the top right hand side of the blog.

“Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity.” – Bo Bennett