I have been given this great opportunity by my friends at StressedOutNurses.com to let other nursing students and nurses hear all about my last semester of nursing school. Here goes: My name is Chelsea. I am a 21-year-old senior at a small liberal arts college just outside of Boston, MA. During the next 14 weeks--the last 14 weeks of college for me--I'm going to give you a sense of how I am feeling and what is going on during this crazy and hectic time. I want you, the readers, to be there with me as I am preparing to take the NCLEX and when I am filling out applications for "real" jobs.

Right now, I am home on Christmas break (my last one ever!), working at a local hospital in my hometown. But as the break has been winding down, I have been finding myself very anxious. It's not that I don't want to go back; it's just the fact that I am graduating on May 18th. Graduating college! It is so scary to think that I am going to be a real registered nurse in about four months. Do I know enough? Are patients and other nurses going to like me? Am I going to stink as a nurse? Questions like these are running through my head constantly as I prepare to go back to school.

And this semester is going to be crazy! I have classes only on Mondays (which is a miracle in itself), but the rest of the week is devoted to my preceptor-clinical experience. I was lucky enough, through all my hard work over these three years, to earn a spot in a specialty setting. I am on a maternity floor at a prestigious Boston hospital. I am more than excited. I can't wait to get into it and act like a nurse. I have 160 hours to complete throughout the semester, and I want to finish them as soon as possible so I am going to work between 28 and 30 hours a week. Eventually, I will be taking a full patient load and that scares me to death.

But sometimes there are certain moments that solidify my passion for this profession. Sometimes there are moments like this one: During this winter break at work, I took care of a 95-year-old man. We became very close and I found myself spending time with him in his final days. I also became very close with his daughters and they shared with me some parts of his life that made me understand truly what a great man he was. He ended up passing away and it struck me pretty hard. I still find myself thinking of him from time to time.

At one point during his care, the man's daughters met my mother at her place of employment, and they were gushing about me. They didn't even know she was my mother! Earlier this week, I went to visit my mom at work and there was a present waiting there for me. It was a wonderful card filled with their warmest wishes about graduation and for the rest of my life as a nurse. The daughters said that I made a difference in their father's care. It truly is amazing how much nursing influences these families. This is my sign that I didn't choose nursing; it chose me.
 
Once again, I am really excited that I have been given this chance to let everyone into my head for my last few months as a college student. Maybe some of the things I say will help some of you in your career--or maybe it will help some of you understand this new generation of nurses. Either way, hopefully, this will benefit you as much as I think it's going to help me. So keep a look out on the site for my stories.

Next week, I will let you in on my two-day NCLEX jam session the first week back from winter break.

Editor's note: Chelsea's column appears weekly, exclusively on StressedOutNurses.com.