Job #1: Half-Hearted Nurse Never Wanna-Be

I thought I would write about some of the jobs that I have had in my short lifetime...

Always the do-gooder, I refused to do the typical high school job when I entered the job force. You wouldn't see me flipping burgers or scanning groceries. No sir.

My official title was High School Co-Op. Sounds like an apartment rather than some young girl who walks around the orthopedic wing of the local hospital trying her best not to wake any of the patients as she took their blood pressure and vitals. I did a variety of tasks, yet the favorite activity was filling the cabinets in the rooms. I knew I was not made out to be a nurse when I realized I enjoyed folding the towels in the cabinet more than helping the patients. It was weird though. I would be working and I would walk into a room and there would be someone from my high school and I would have to take his vitals. I would have to help her eat her supper. I would have to wash his hair.

I earned quite a reputation for my ability to wash people's hair as they lay in their hospital beds. I also was sturdy enough to help move patients with the orderlies. In the course of one week, I experienced two events that solidified that I would be leaving the medical profession never to return unless I was the person lying in the bed. I walked into room 312 hoping to take the vitals and the patient was covered with a blanket. I walked out and the look on my face must have said, "Whoa. That lady is dead!" The nurse apologized for not telling me and they were just waiting for her to be moved. Heck, I worked on the orthopedic wing. People didn't die there, I thought...they just moaned, screamed, and cursed their body with every move they made.

Finally, a nurse came up to me a few days later to tell me about some 'procedure' that was happening that I could watch. I had no interest. She was shocked. I wasn't. I am not into that whole blood and cutting and blood. So, I gave my two weeks and wondered how I had worked at the hospital for a year and a half. A few days later, I was turning applications at ice cream and grocery stores hoping to be a regular high school kid with a job,.