105 - Jenn Boyer: Ride the Wave

Join nurse and Spokane, Washington native Honored Guest Jenn Boyer as she chats about having a superpower by not having a superpower, being a non-traditional student, being smart but undisciplined growing up, how Y2K helped her get in to nursing school, failing out of second quarter, developing self-confidence, the true meaning of having a “calling,” and more!

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Transcript

0:01

Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Feeding Our Young Podcast. Today I have a wonderful friend with me and I know that nobody's used to us leading off with a spelling lesson, but that's exactly what I'm gonna do today. This is my friend spelled F-R-I-E-N-N-D, my friend with two Ns. Jenn, Jenn with two Ns, Jenn, how the heck are you doing today? I'm good. It's great to be here. I am so glad to be able to just kind of chill and sit in studio with you. It's been at least a couple days since I saw you last. I know you were there to witness the craziness that was Wednesday. Yes, Wednesday. We will not forget Wednesday anytime soon. There was multiple, not only was there multiple births, but I mean, there was some sadness in there too. So it was, it was not a fun day, but here we are on Saturday, which is going to be vastly more fun as far as that goes. So Jenn, I won't waste any more time here as far as that goes. I would love for you to introduce yourself. Who are you? Where is home to you? Well, I'm Jennifer Boyer, but that's way too formal. And Jenny is a common nickname, but that one doesn't apply to me unless you went to high school with me, because apparently I went by Jenny in high school, even though I don't remember that. Jenn it is. This is home, as in Spokane, Washington. I was not born here, but I've been here for... 28 years. So this feels like home. 28 years, so like since you were like two years old or seven, right? So, and just in the interest of transparency, and I asked for permission to do this first, you know, we've texted back and forth going into this episode, and I'm like, all right, Jenn, you ready to go? She's like, yeah, I'm just a little nervous about, you know, my boring self and da-da-da-da. I'm like, you are one of the least boring people I've ever met. So, and gentlemen. Thank you for coming to this episode with Jenn. Hi, Jenn, how are you? Hey, are you, do you like nursing? Yes, I do. Okay, great. Alright. We got the boring out of the way. Now we're ready to rock. Okay, so with that, I guess I've kind of given it away. Yes, we do work with each other. Jenn, would you mind sharing what degrees you hold and or maybe when and where you graduated with them? Sure, I have my bachelor's of science in nursing. I started nursing school way back at the turn of the century. It was spring of 2000. I got my associate's degree from SCC. And then I started actually working as a nurse in January of 2004. And then I went back to school probably five or six years later to finish my BSN through an online program. And so now, now I have. Very cool. So when you first started, you were like going to SCC and like buggy and carriage, horse and carriage, that sort of thing? Yeah, yeah. I love it. What was the, gosh, did you ever play that game, Oregon Trail? Of course, we played it multiple times a year during computer class. Yeah. like a brand new thing in schools. I might be aging myself, but I do remember that as well. So at least you avoided getting dysentery on your way to SCC, right? Good, good. able to fjord the river to get there. All right, so anyone who's like what in the heck are you two talking about don't worry This is just a couple of old fogies no an old fogie and a wonderful person getting together and chatting about a Little game called the Oregon Trail and you can look into that anyway regardless. Let's not digress any further What are three words that you chose to describe nurse in school Jim? Okay, the first word that I chose to describe nursing school is soul crushing. And I included a hyphen in there so that it's just one word. It counts. Three and a half words. What are the three and a half words you trust? okay, and then word number two is necessary and word number three is temporary. I like this. I can't wait to discuss those at the end of your episode. And in the meantime, what are three of your favorite songs in life right now? Okay, well, as discussed, I'm old enough to have gone nursing school at the turn of the century. So I'm old and I have old person hobbies, which means before you continue then, old person hobbies, does that mean we need to take a second so you can go to your LP collection and find some songs? Yeah, yeah, my kids are my kids are bringing that back. They all want record players and stuff now. Um, so anyway, uh, I don't listen to a lot of music anymore. I don't know what happened. It wasn't a conscious choice, but, podcasts have entered my world. And now I just all the times and I would be listening to music. I'm listening to podcasts and audio books. So Improving yourself and entertaining yourself through an audio medium. This is the reason why this little podcast exists. So that being said, what are maybe three of your favorite podcasts then? Okay, my three favorite podcasts. For sure. Number one is armchair expert with Zach Shepard and Monica Padman. And this is my first foray into being a guest on a podcast, but I'm excited to use it for practice for one day when I will be a guest on that podcast. We had this chat about like I was like, I hate to disappoint you Jenn, but I don't think Dax is listening Hopefully maybe one member of his staff will figure it out and be like wait, I gotta have her on my podcast Well, he does a special call in like episode where obviously people call in and they tell stories about like whatever his theme or topic is for the day. And he's done nurse stories twice and he's going to keep doing it because it's such a big hit with everybody because we have the best stories. Yeah we do. Awesome! my gosh. Okay, so it's gonna happen. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. I love it, I love it. Any other podcasts you wanna drop? Uh, Huberman Lab podcast. That one's awesome too. For sciency people like us. Nice, I've not heard of that one, so I'll have to check that out. All right, so the other thing, and I'm setting you up very poorly for this one. I usually warn my guests before we jump in about this one, it's the newest thing I'm doing, and by now we're about six or seven on our guests in. But I have this unofficial, unpatented, feeding our young personality test. Would you be willing to take it here and now? Nothing crazy, it is just five would you rather questions for the most part. that you answer rapid fire, you give rationale or don't, and then we find out we know exactly what type of person you are. Okay, I'm game. Let's do it. Would you rather have the ability to fly or breathe underwater? Team Pie or Team Cake Instantly learn a new language or instrument Language. You now have a time machine, congratulations. Are you gonna go back in time or are you gonna see the future? Back in time. and is Wham's Last Christmas actually a Christmas song? for sure. No! Alright, there it is, yes. And the results are in, you are amazing. Congratulations. Yay. It's a stupid thing, but I was like, we're just gonna play with this and see what people, I'm looking for it because I'm a nerd, and so I will straight up just tally these. And we'll keep a running tally of what people land, what category they landed. I too am a nerd. I lived for many years under the illusion that I wasn't, but now I've accepted it. Acceptance is half the battle, really. I, however, recognized it very early on, and if I hadn't, I was that obtuse, there were certain peers at school that definitely made sure I knew. So, it was a matter of embracing it and turning it into a superpower as opposed to a weakness. Speaking of, Jenn, what's your superpower? I kind of think of myself as a person without a superpower, but that's okay because that in itself is a superpower because then you average people can do awesome things too. Amen. And we are living proof of that. that's awesome. I love that answer. I'm gonna have to... Okay, that's awesome. All right. With that then, you briefly mentioned a little bit about your family. Share whatever you would like about your family, whatever they'd be okay with you sharing about it. Okay, here begins the boring, not that my family's boring, but it's very typical. I'm sorry, then let me rephrase, sorry. So Jenn, will you tell us about your family? Thanks. I have been married for it will be 27 years of this August. So his name's Jon We met in Hawaii, of all exciting places. And then we have three kids. We have Noah, who's 25 at the end of this month, and Marlo, who is 20, and Peyton, girl Peyton, will be 16 at the end of this month and getting ready to start driver's ed. Oh, that's an exciting time in your household, is it not? Yeah, and we have two dogs whom I love very much, but I've also discovered that I'm not as much of a dog person as I was when my parents were doing all the work of raising dogs. So when we don't have dogs anymore, I'm probably going to enjoy a little peace and quiet. A little freedom from furry children. Or more furry children. I don't know. We're not going to talk about how furry your actual children are. A couple questions popped to mind there. First of all, is it Jon with two N's? If not, why not? Come on. No, but it is Jonathan, J-O-N, not J-O-H-N. So we gotta be special somehow. And how did you guys meet in Hawaii, of all places? We were both a part of YWAM, which is Youth with a Mission. We were both a part of that organization and we got to do a little, I don't remember what they called it. They called it, well they called it school, but it was really more like a three month long church camp. So school is a pretty loosely used term, but we met there. Very, very cool. Well, then let's fast forward a little bit and talk about Jenn, the nursing student. So let's dial that machine back a little, just a couple of years. And, you know, why nursing? Let's start there. Why nursing? And then how, why SCC of all places? Why'd you start there? Hmm, okay. I don't, I mean the short answer is I don't know. hahahahah Well, my mom was a nurse. So I think that probably influenced me in some way. And during that time in people's lives where they try on a bunch of different identities and sort of figure out who they are, I just was always stuck on nursing. Like I would try to think of other things to go after and nothing just felt. right and this one felt natural and like the way to go so I followed it. Very cool. And I can tell you right now that there are many of us that are grateful that you did, including, I imagine, the numerous patients you've taken care of over the years, for sure. That's amazing. So then you decide nursing's it for you. Did you have careers before or was it at that point you're like, I'm just, I'm gonna go to the community college and we're gonna get that ADN and let's run with this? Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, as a, I got married really young. So was 21 when I got married. When I was graduating from high school, I think I probably had no idea what kind of person I wanted to be. Like part of me wanted to, go to college and join a sorority and have the whole college experience. And then the other part of me didn't care about that all and just wanted to screw around a party. And part of me wanted to get married and have babies young. And the other part of me was like, you have forever to do that. So what's your hurry? But get married and have babies young sort of went out. Ahahaha! When you're in that sort of circumstance, SCC makes the most sense because they're most accommodating to non-traditional students. Yeah, yeah, very sure. And thankful for that too. I mean, that's similar. I lived a bit of life before going to SCC and landing in the nursing world. that is, and that's what I love about having so many ways to get into the nursing field. You know, there's some that jump in straight into those four years, some of the two, we've talked about that before on this podcast, but I love the fact that, you know, wherever you are in life, in theory, there's an option for you. There's a way to make it happen. so anything you want to talk about as far as, I'm leading the witness because you led me in this direction, but that bridge there between high school and getting into college, how good of a student were you? my gosh, Eric, that's such a rude question to ask your guest. leading question. Well, as we sort of communicated earlier, I do think I'm a reasonably smart person, but that's accumulated knowledge over many years. I'm not a very disciplined person, and no surprise to anybody listening who's looking into nursing school, it requires some discipline. Mm-hmm. I think I had fulfilled all of the requirements for applying to nursing school. I could tell on paper it wasn't the strongest application, but I was like, just give it a shot. And if I get in, I get in. And if I don't, then I can perhaps retake some classes or do other things to boost the resume a little bit. And reflecting back on this, I now have a theory. I just came up with it just today, but I think there's some weight to it. It was springtime of 2000. And my theory is that we had just made it through Y2K. Probably, probably there were a lot of people who were like, what's the point of studying for nursing school? Because the world is going to end. huh, huh. And so people applying, the numbers of people applying for nursing school was probably way down in comparison. And so I just got in. Thank you Y2K! Thank you, Y2K. So one, I met the requirements for nursing school. mean, obviously you can't be totally an idiot and get in a nursing school. So I'm sure I was smart enough. But in comparison to the typical competition, if I were applying in today's world, I probably would not be getting in. But that's OK. Life works out the way that it works out. Yes, it does. And again, fortuitously, so glad it did. It's just funny you bring that up for everybody's like, why 2K? Anyone out there who's like, I have no idea what that's about. Just look it up. It genuinely was a thing. All the computers were supposed to like crash or, you know, all the things because they were allegedly at the time, they thought that they were not programmed. The year digit was I think just two digits. And so it was programmed to, know, so then you get to 99. And they were like, when it hits the zeros, the computers are like crash because they think it's gonna go back to 1900 and they won't be able to handle that. And so, yeah, it was this thing. And everybody was like, know, there was a lot of, I know, there was a lot of, I feel like there were a lot of people like buying like prep kits and stuff in case, you know what I mean? The worst happened. And they're talking like full global, like, you know, utilities shutting down and all this stuff. And I distinctly remember going. You know, you're kind of nervous, but you're also not kind of nervous. So my wife and I had met, you know, by that point and we were dating and I brought... I'll leave the total rationale out of it, but long story short, she always wanted an August wedding. She wanted a beautiful August wedding. so, but when we got engaged in 99 prior to Y2K, she was like, no, no, no, we have to... we have to get married before the end of the year so that we can partake in certain things before Jesus comes back. And so that was the rationale behind us getting married. So I remember Y2K quite distinctly all too well. Exactly, exactly. And a little bit of a different person now, of course. So we'll leave that for another time. But no, I appreciate you, you being open to that as far as that goes. Do you have any advice for nursing students that are like, oh, I kind of totally relate with you? Or people who are prospective nursing students are like, I don't feel like I'm the best student at all. It's not Y2K for me. What can I do? I think that you should just, I don't know, it's kind of a corny phrase, but ride the wave, so to speak. Like things sometimes just align for you and who knows how or why, but if things are falling into place, I always, unless I really don't want to, I always just try to like. to follow that as far as it'll take me. So just do that. The other complicating factor when I started nursing school was that I had a newborn. So I had applied and I didn't think I was gonna get in. So I was just barging ahead with my other life that I wanted, which having babies young. So I was pregnant. was like, I was pregnant when I applied, but I didn't think it would matter because I thought, one, I probably won't get in. But then I did. I was actually supposed to register for classes on the day that I went into labor. So I missed my registration appointment. You know what? Though they were nice. They let me in anyways, even though I missed my registration appointment. They counted that as an excused, not an absence, but yeah. So I was basically set to start nursing school when Noah was two months old, I think. And objectively, that was a bad time to start nursing school. But I thought, you know what? This is the way it's working out. So just ride it and follow it and see what happens. And yeah, it's going to be hard, but it's all going to be hard anyway. So the sooner we can get the hard stuff done, the better. And that was my uh That was my plan. And it like worked out and didn't work out at the same time because I made it into nursing school and then failed out of my second quarter of nursing school. And then I had so I had to wait to be let back in and did a lot of questioning of myself and my choices during that period of time waiting to get let back in because it was possible that I wouldn't get back in. or at least it seemed possible at the time. But that's not what happened. I got back in and I finished school and here I am living to tell it. I love that. I absolutely love that. So, I mean, if you don't mind my asking, how long of a period of time from the time you failed out a second quarter till the time you got back in? It was almost a year, a little under a year. Yeah. And was that like just because of failed repeated attempts to get in or just life getting in the way and you doing some reflecting? I didn't, well, neither, I guess. You didn't have to, like, there were no repeated attempts, but the school letting you back in was on a space available basis. So it just took that long before there was an open spot for me to get back in. Yeah. would you say, and if this is too horrible of a question, tell me to bugger off, but would you say that that failing was more a sequela of being a new mom or going back to your academic, like, well, I'm not the brightest light bulb in the room, but I'm smart enough. But you know what I mean? Like that sort of thing or a combination thereof. certainly at the time, I was convinced it was because I did not have what it takes and I was not smart enough for this goal that I had put in front of me, put in front of myself. But in retrospect, that's not the case at all. The case was that I had just bitten off a lot with the brand new baby in nursing school. And that's just life sometimes. Yeah. how did you personally come to a place where you realized that? Like how do you get over that wall of I'm not smart enough, I'm not good enough, this must not be it for me? I don't, mean, I'm sure it's a different answer for everybody. But I don't even know if I ever got over that. I mean, slowly chips away over the years and now I can be like, hey, I'm great. I have a lot of self-confidence, but you know, that is not something that I just had like an aha moment and it disappeared. It was just something that slowly went away over time. But my desire to build a better life for myself and for my family and and all that kind of stuff outweighed insecurities. I just knew I didn't want to be broke and poor and destitute for the rest of my life. So I had to figure something out. And that was the opportunity in front of me. So that's what I was going to continue to go out. And listen to that nursing student. that's the whole thing. Like the two of us, you know, we're slightly around 40-ish, give or take. But you hear that, literally, just what, I love what you just said, Jenn. That it wasn't this moment you're like, okay, no, it wasn't that. You know, the negative voices don't just stop. You know, however you're hearing them. They don't just cease to exist. And also conversely, you may not be able to just be like, you know what, shut up in our voices. I got this. It may take some time and you may be living with those quote unquote voices for quite some time. And so just be, you know, recognize that. But also, I don't know, like to me, I feel like, you know, you were married then, you had your baby, your first baby. And so I imagine your spouse probably played, Jon played a bit of a role in that, I would imagine, as far as encouraging you and uplifting you, he's definitely a very encouraging and uplifting person. There are like, you know, different, I'm definitely more motivated, like goal oriented and motivated by, I don't want to say money, but just like, you know, the idea of a better life. I know there was a specific point about like, cause at SCC, their program, I don't know if it's still like this, but when I went there, the first year of the program, you, After that first year, you could take the boards and be an LPN. And then you could continue with your second year if you wanted to be an RN. And I did take those LPN boards, which I didn't end up doing anything with. I was a licensed LPN for nine months or whatever, but I didn't ever really work as one. But I remember at that time, I had had an opportunity to work in the occupational therapy office as an LPN. And my husband thinking like, maybe you should take that. That's a thing that's in front of you right now and makes money. But staying in school might be better long term, but it's hard to pass up the immediate gratification. But my mom being an LPN, and she's great at her job. And I credit her a lot with, you know, opening the world of healthcare to me. But it's not a very well paying position. And I had the foresight and at that time to be like, hey, this might be immediately better, but it's not long term better. And so I said, nah, I'm gonna keep gonna stay in school. So. And to be fair, you're also that close, right? It doesn't feel like you're close, but you're going, I'm slightly over halfway. Let's just finish the thing. You know what I mean? And maybe open up some other opportunities. So that's awesome. So you talk about kind of riding this wave and seeing how far it'll take you and that sort of thing. It brings to mind for me another thing you wanted to talk about. And so what would you say to those that are like, but... But Jenn, what, okay sure, you might've just, your mom, your mom opened this world of healthcare to you and you you just kind of like, you thought about other things and you just did, but what about me? I have, I've wanted to be a nurse for as long as I could remember and I feel like it's my calling. If it's like, I'm called to be a nurse, therefore I have to be a nurse. What would you say about that little topic there? Yeah, I got some things to say about that topic. And again, I keep touching on this fact of me being older. know I'm probably, I'm not old, but it's just been in the last few years where I recognize that I have a different way of thinking about things than like my teenage and early 20 something kids think about things. And so I don't know how much of this is relatable, but I'm just gonna go ahead and talk about it anyways. Do it. I think that this idea of a calling is actually kind of silly. Ah! I had very non-religious, pretty open-minded parents. And then somehow out of that, in my late teens, I got very involved with the kind of Christian community. at my school and then kind of ended up church environment. you know, then I went to YWAM that's where I my husband. So that faith aspect was very shaping of my life. Now, my beliefs have changed a lot since that time, but I can't deny that it was very foundational aspect of like my adult life. And somehow Christian culture seems to be really obsessed with calling, with people having a calling and fulfilling their calling. I just think, I think that, and like I said, I think it's kind of silly. Like you can literally do anything and it's your calling. I think people get so caught up in this idea that if they don't follow along this particular track that they're gonna miss out or not fulfill something that they're supposed to be fulfilling. And that's just not gonna happen. If you're, it could, like if you're deliberately making poor choices. then yes, you're probably not going to be fulfilling your calling. But in all other circumstances, as long as you are doing your best and working with good intentions and responding to the needs around you, that's all you really need. Then whatever you do that fits into that counts as your calling and you don't need to worry about the fact that maybe your not doing it right or you're not where you're supposed to be. That's just not a thing. I love this answer and I'm so glad you wanted to talk about it. I... from a Christian perspective. There's very much a, you know what I mean, like you go so far as like if you are in some very charismatic churches, which I've been a part of, you know, you're not only you're talking about a calling, you're talking about giftings. And so, you know, you're gifted to do this and God has blessed you with this particular talent or skill and therefore you should use it. And you are called to this role in the church, to this role outside the church, to whatever the case may be. all the way to this is what God is ordaining for you and so you need to do it. And I don't, I'm not trying to suck the wind out of the sails of anybody who's like, you I mean we have incredible, know, I mean Gonzaga is a Jesuit university. We've got Catholic universities, we've got all sorts of different universities of different beliefs and different all the things. So I'm not trying to suck the wind out of sails of those that are like, but no, no, no, no, like I genuinely feel called to this. Fantastic. Fantastic. But listen to what Jenn's saying. Listen to what I'm saying. Because as I've talked about before in this podcast, I took a little detour. I was going to become a doctor when I grew up, but always interested in health care. That I knew. And was going to be a doctor. Took this detour into children's pastorhood. And it was like a four-year detour. But in two years, you know, with a loose, maybe a little tighter school than what you're talking about. actually was, no, I don't think the courses were accredited. They didn't transfer it anywhere. But you do end up with a two-year degree, a ministerial license. and that sort of thing. And then, you know, I spent a couple years trying my hand at the old children's pastor thing, but I did that, Jenn, because, you know, I was called to it and I was called to full-time ministry. That's another thing in Christian circles that you'll hear. You're called to full-time ministry. And so that's great. That's fine. Now fast forward to that moment where I am no longer going to be a children's pastor, where I realize that full-time ministry is not for me. And so if you have that first belief, I'm called to fill in the blank. And then that fill in the blank doesn't work out. Can you see the potential for the devastation that that can exist to somebody's self-worth and all the things? It's the lowest I've ever felt in my life. And my wife and I, we've talked about that so many times. When we moved here to Spokane, I remember sitting on the bed and just crying. I was like, we had negative $250 to our name. We were overdrawn 250 bucks, no money. We had our first child, you know, he's a few months old at that time. And I'm feeling as just a complete failure as a pastor, as a minister, a, you know, whatever, it just didn't work out as a father, as a spouse, all the things. And my wife gives me that time because I'd say, I'm no better than my mom. And that's not to throw my mom under the bus, but she had her own financial issues. So this whole idea of calling, if that's truly genuinely what you believe, fantastic. Don't lose that, because that in and of itself will help drive you to success. But please take what you hear from Jenn and myself and tuck that in the back of your mind as like, it's okay. As best as I can tell, and this is not like some... justification that I just came up with, you know what I mean, way back in the day because of that low point in my life. If you look even from a Christian standpoint, biblically, I think our calling is to help people, is to serve people, not to be an island unto ourselves, not to put us ahead of others as far as like, okay, it's all about me and how far I can get in life and what I can do. It's about how do you serve one another? How do you, in the case of nursing, the calling is taking the best care of your patients you can take care of. not the actual job itself. Is that, am I going on a rabbit trail here, Jenn, or does that kind of feel aligned with kind of what you're saying? Yeah, for sure. I think that, especially, I don't know what it is about labor and delivery, postpartum, the NICU, that seems to be an area, maybe it's not, maybe that's just what I've been exposed to, but that seems to be an area, particularly where people, mostly women, feel called to be there. And I love that. If you have a very strong sense of calling, then I believe that that's what it is for you and you should follow it. I'm talking to the people who are like, dude, I don't know. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. It is 100 % okay just to let life unfold and see where it takes you. And as long as you're using those experiences to... to the best of your abilities positively impact the people around you, then that's all you need to know. And I, as I think I text you about this, but I always wanted to be a labor and delivery nurse. And I'm not a super sentimental person. So that didn't have to do with like, I wanna hold babies or it was never that. That's just what felt right to me. And what I really believed was like the one area of nursing that was for me. awesome. I did not get a practicum in labor and delivery. I did not work as a nurse tech in labor and delivery. I was upon graduating offered a position in postpartum. It was a supplemental position and in my naivete, I thought, well, I didn't take it because I had found out that I was pregnant with my second baby. And I thought, well, I need to have a job with benefits. I can't take supplemental. And my naivete told me, it'll be fine. You'll get plenty of opportunities like this, so don't worry. Just, you know, guess what? I did not get more opportunities to get into postpartum or the world of having babies. So then I worked a good, I can't even count them, seven or eight years not in women's health and wondering what the heck am I doing? Like I did home care, which had some benefits to it, but was certainly not anything I was passionate or excited about. I worked at St. Luke's in their rehab, the neuro rehab. Interesting, but not an area I felt particularly excited about. And all I remember thinking is, I don't know how this is my calling. HAHAHAHA Just kidding, I didn't think that, but I do remember thinking, I worked so hard to become a nurse, and I don't know if this women's health is gonna work out for me or not. And if it's not, I don't know how long I can keep doing this, because this is not long-term, this is not doing it for me. And then by some miracle, I did end up getting a job in labor and delivery after about seven years of working as a nurse. So stick with it, guys. Just because it doesn't happen right away doesn't mean that it's not going to happen. And there are benefits to that. I met friends in my other jobs who are my lifelong friends, and I'm still a part of my life today. I am way more grateful for the job that I have because I've seen what's on the other side. And I know that it isn't for me. And I do think that there's a lot of people who go into a specialty right outside of school, which I think is great if you're given the opportunity, by all means do it. I just know that having done other things, it made it all the more precious when I was actually able to do the job that I wanted to do. and I don't get burned out the way I see a lot of other people getting burned out in this role. Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. That's an interesting thought. Having a mixed experience in certain specialties of nursing, we'll say that, guess. Having that and almost that being a safeguard against burnout. Interesting. Because again, we've talked about from the flip perspective, when you're starting to feel burnout, try something new and then that can revitalize you. But... If you're like you said, you're like Jenn, if you're nursing path, when you come out of there's something to be said for expectations versus reality. And that's just on a daily. That's on the daily. okay, I expect this patient to do well, or I expect this patient to not do good. And then in both those cases, maybe the opposite happens. But the expectation that I'm going to, you I'm gonna be an L and D, I'm gonna be an OB, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. And then here's this. tiny little wafer and you're like, well, I'll get the next one that comes along eight years later. So, you know, it's one of those things where I just love it. It comes right back to full circle, ride the wave, right? Ride the wave. You kept riding the wave. You're like, well, this isn't exactly what I was looking for. And yet on the backside, so instead of me who was like, oh man, I didn't necessarily feel called to Peds Oncology, but it's what I wanted to do. I was off the charts, passionate about it. when I coming out of nursing school and I got that dream job right out of there. And I'm like, this is it. I'm going to be a night shift pediatric oncology nurse for the entirety of my career. Done. I'm so excited. 13 years later, wait a second. There are complications now with my own heart and what it's had to deal with and the bruising and the battering and all the things, blah, blah, blah. Not that I'm a victim, but that really happens in nursing. And so I had to make a change. And fortunately, I recognize that and revitalize my career and I'm in a better place than I ever have been and that was five years ago. But I'm looking at you being the mirror version of that, right? I want this and yet, mm, you know, I'm, okay, well, I mean, we'll start with home health. sounds okay. That's, yeah, I'll get some things out of this. And then, okay, well, all right, then St. Luke's and you know, so on and so forth. And so, nursing student when you graduate and you get out into the world and you're like maybe you get your specialty that you're hoping for right out of the bat. Maybe on the flip side you're like oh what I want to do is not available so now I have to settle for these other things. Look at this you're talking to two nurses who combined uh you were you've been a nurse since 2004 you said Jenn so 20 years going on 20 years yeah so 38 years almost 40 years combined. Do you want oh your nursing career January is kind of like my nursing birth month. was when I started working as a nurse, was January of 2004. And it was January of 2013 when I started working in labor and delivery. And it's also my actual birthday month, so there you go. Okay, well, minus the third thing, I'm right in there with you. So January, first of all, observation, your nursing career is now old enough to drink, so that's great. And second, mine isn't, I'm an adult now, but I'm not there yet. And then on the flip side of that, January is a beautiful month, because same story. I started Peds Onc January 22nd and started postpartum. I was just two weeks shy of 13 years in Peds Oncology, and so January is my double anniversary date when it comes to that. But enough of that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Who cares about Eric's anniversary date? That being said, Jennifer, there a, I read your name right off the thing. I call you Jenn and I'm like, so Jennifer, is there anything else you want to, Jennifer, we're getting official now, we're done being silly. No, so Jenn, is there anything else you want to add or anything you want to talk about before we circle back around on our normal ending questions? I can just put the plug out there. I probably don't need to put a plug out there because there's plenty of people who want to work in women's health, but I'll just put the plug out there anyways for labor and delivery. It's the best specialty ever. Period. Even if you're like, but I don't want to work with women all day or if you were like, oh, I don't know, babies. I'm just telling you. It's a great unit because we have better ratios than almost any other unit in hospital. You get to do a ton of hands-on skills. You get to do like multiple roles. Like you learn how to be a labor nurse and then you also learn, certainly not the whole scope of OR nursing, but you get to learn our little sliver of OR nursing. You get our little sliver of emergency and triage nursing. And there's just a lot of roles combined into one role and pretty exciting. But it's like, it's a nice combination of like technical skills and sort of high acuity, but balanced out with some lower acuity, more family-friendly moments. and just being a part of something that's really meaningful in somebody's life. Yeah, I phrase it with my students. I'm like, you are literally part of somebody's miracle. And they won't necessarily remember your name. Maybe they will. But they will definitely remember you. And they'll remember you being a part of that. so you saying that brought me back to when you're in nursing school, for the most part, the big delineating line is like, I don't want to touch kids. I'm going to work with adults. And other people are like, I'm going to do kids because I don't want to go anywhere near adults. Yeah. that there seems to be like that line of demarcation. Whereas in labor and delivery, postpartum, et cetera, you get the best of both worlds. You get the best of both worlds. I love that. Awesome. So Jenn, you picked three words to describe nursing school. What were they and why'd you choose them? word number one was soul crushing. And I don't think that I can't remember if I already said this, but it counts as one word because it has a hyphen. So optimistic. Yeah, I don't think a lot of explanation is needed for that one. It's an experience that's designed to break you down and then build you back up. But If you're willing to ride that wave, good things come out of it. Second word, my second word was, necessary. it's one, I don't, it's more than a hoop, because you have four years of education that happens. And so it's more than a hoop that you have to jump through. But it's also that it's, it's a hoop you have to jump through. Pretty much everybody who's gone through nursing school is going to tell you that you don't come out of it knowing how to be a nurse, you just come out of it. with just the bare minimum to really be able to start learning how to be a nurse as a nurse. And that's true. But it is, is, even though there's tons and tons of learning that will be done after the fact, this is like step one. It's the foundation and you gotta get through it. So just buckle up and just keep moving forward. Yeah. also like, it's funny, you're like, it's a hoop you have to jump through. You're like, well, it's like four years, so it's really not, I envisioned like a bunch of hoops, so was like, well, it's kind of a tunnel. So you gotta jump through the tunnel. Yeah. And if you have to crawl through the tunnel, like, because you can't even stand up, that's great, too. It all counts. If you get to the end, it counts. Moving forward, moving forward. Yeah. And then final word. temporary. I picked this word. I couldn't find a better word, I'm gonna be honest. I had a concept in my mind and I couldn't find the right word for the concept, but the nursing student that you are is not necessarily, it could be, but it's not necessarily a reflection of the kind of nurse that you're going to be. I was pretty scattered when I was a nursing student, because I was young, had a new baby, had imposter syndrome big time and was feeling just really insecure. And I wasn't a model student, let's just say that. I made it through, as we talked about already, but by the skin of my teeth, I think. And I had a lot of fear going forward that like, that I've bitten off more than I can chew. And I'm only here because I got lucky. again, I know this is probably sounds silly, but the internet existed, but social media didn't exist. And so a lot of these things that are so obvious to people right now because they get spread around really fast through social media, were not concepts that were like widely known. And I can actually remember the first time that I heard the concept of imposter syndrome. And it was like amazing, because I'd never heard anybody put words to that feeling that I had. And it was like, I had just cracked some sort of code and it like validated me and helped me to see that like, oh, lots of people feel this way. And if lots of people are feeling this way and they're still pretty awesome at their job, then maybe that can be true for me too. And you just, yeah, so I feel like I've landed in a place as a nurse where I don't feel that sense of imposter syndrome anymore. That doesn't mean that I don't have a ton of stuff to learn. Doesn't mean I've got it all figured out, but I'm confident in the part that I do know. And it's just, it's a really good feeling to be on the other side of this. And the other side of this is not going to be the day that you graduate from nursing school. but you're gonna just slowly build your career and you're gonna slowly build your life. And one day you're gonna be like, wow, I don't know when it flipped, but I can see now that I'm just more confident and in a better place. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I just love that. So just know that it will get better, but also know that the getting better takes a long time. Yeah, very much so. I love how you phrased that. And I'm like, maybe that's part of the reason why this podcast exists, right? Is you're always like, I feel like there's almost a sense of those of us that are, you know, around our 40s, give or take, you almost wish you can go back and be like, hey, young Eric, hey, young Jenn, you know what mean? Telling yourself like, don't worry about this, that, that, and that's all these things you're consumed with right now because here's what it looks like on the other side of that. So maybe that's part of reason why this like, it's, we're trying to help you like you would with your own children, right? Like, hey, please, please, please, pretty please learn the lessons that, you know, your mom, myself, your parents, your whoever, whoever it is that that's adult in your life, that's like, please listen to these lessons because we'd rather you take from our foundation and go forward from there. Like it's almost a desire to go back and tell ourselves, hey, You're right, you do feel that way and it's okay. Like almost all of us do. when you may be feeling like I'm the only one, I'm the only one, there's no way, know, my other classmates, man, I see them, they gotta put together. And you know what? Guess what they're doing? The person you're sitting right next to is going, man, I'm looking at everybody, including you, and going, hey man, they gotta all put it together. You know what I I'm the one with the imposter syndrome and dah, dah, dah. It's everybody thinking the same thing and not saying it out loud. And it just takes that one spark of like, oh, it's not just me? Okay, great, great. Yeah, and I would never try to like tell a nursing student to just relax and don't be so anxious because that's impossible and the stakes are high. So you should be anxious. That anxiety is going to keep you working hard and doing your best. So I just want to say it's okay to feel anxious and don't let it like overtake you. Like you can be anxious. and be optimistic about the future at the same time. Use it as a superpower. Use it as a superpower. Harness its energy to propel you forward, riding the wave. There it is, we're pulling it all together. Okay, so Jenn, one last question. If there was nothing else, and you've already dropped so much, if there was nothing else you wanted anyone to get from listening to your episode, what would that one thing be? it's okay to fail, because that's not the end of the story. You can feel all of your feelings and they're all okay. But just know that you have power over them and you can get through the other side of them. I guess that's it. And that's it, there it is. Jenn, thank you so much. This was a lovely time. Oh, I'm so glad you did it and I cannot wait for, like I keep telling everybody, there's, you know, right now we're in a healthy place. The podcast is in a healthy place where the recordings that I'm doing don't come out for many, many months. And which is, you know, a bummer, but also like for the... sake of continuing this thing, it at least gives me some comfort. But that being said, like, you're just continuing the streak, just like everybody else. Then I'm like, I wish I could just take this, don't even edit it, just upload it now, because you've got so much to share. I cannot wait for people to hear this. So thank you so much, Jenn. Thanks, I appreciate this. Have a nice Saturday. Oh, I will. You have a great rest of your Saturday. Bye.