Nine Years!!!

Today is officially my 9 year anniversary of being a nurse! There are a lot of days I could count as my first day as a nurse....I graduated in May of 2001 from nursing school, passed the NCLEX that summer and was commissioned as a USAF nurse in July of 2001......

but I count Sept 12, 2001 as my official anniversary for several reasons.

I along with the rest of the world, will always remember where I was on Sept 11, 2001. I had just finished officer training in Alabama, and had moved to Mississippi for a nurse internship with the Air Force for three months. Sept. 11 was to be our last day of orientation (paperwork) and Sept. 12 was to be my first day with patients as a nurse on a surgical floor.

Sept 11th our instructor tried her best to get us to complete our orientation, but we were newly commissioned officers in the military, on a base that was on complete lock down. We knew when we joined the Air Force all that entailed and the possibilities of military life, but all the "what ifs" were now real.

On Sept 12th, my first day as a nurse, I was supposed to be in training. Due to the circumstance, however, a good deal of the experienced nurses were overnight deployed to New Jersey, and there were not enough trainers. So my first day as a nurse was a sink or swim method of learning with a full load of patients! One of my proudest times was wearing that military uniform and serving my country in the midst of crisis. So, my anniversary as a nurse, and the anniversary of Sept. 11th will always be intertwined.