The Cure

As a prospective nursing student, I believe in medicine. I believe in antibiotics. I believe in pain killers. I believe in lysol. Four years of taking Biology classes will do that to you. In almost all of my classes, a bacterium will be mentioned in class and we will quickly go over how dangerous it is for humans, but the conversation always ends with "but we have treatment for that now." It's comforting to know that even scary sounding disorders like tuberculosis and MRSA have very good treatments. Therefore, while I'm a strong believer in a healthy diet, plenty of sleep, regular exercise, and a low-stress environment, I also believe in medicine, surgery, and disinfectants.

I realize that not all people think this way, and maybe I'm naive for feeling this way. My roommate, for example, feels the exact opposite. Where I will run to student health or Patient First at the first sign of a cold for fear that it's something more serious (or maybe in hopes that its an infection instead of a virus so I can just take pills to make me feel better instead of waiting it out), Megan goes for a run to flush it out of her system. She has never had any vaccinations and instead of going to the doctor regularly, she visits the acupuncturist. And then there's my boyfriend, who never took a Tylenol for his frequent headaches prior to dating me. He believes in drinking water and sleeping for a long time. After I bought him a bottle of ibuprofen for 92 cents, he has become much more comfortable when he gets these headaches. Sure, he still drinks water and sleeps, but he's also in less pain when he does this.

I guess I just get confused when I hear so frequently that they want to keep their bodies pure from most medicine to keep it toxin-free. I think that's an excellent way to think... if you live on Pandora. The reality is that we are constantly exposed to carcinogens, extremely harmful bacteria, toxins, and other chemicals. The food we eat is painted with preservatives and pesticides. Maybe fighting fire with fire isn't the best way science could have turned when it comes to illness, but we're currently practicing the "best" possible way of treating disease. I guess as someone who is a strong believer in science and continuing her education to learn more about these practices, I will always believe that the cure lies in a pill bottle or on an operating room table, but maybe there is more than one cure. While "trends" such as the acai berry fad, a glass of red wine a night, cranberry juice flushes, and blueberry and brocolli diets are usually proven quickly to be hardly effective if at all, I suppose it's a nice thought that there is one magical food, vitamin, or diet to make you live for 200 years. I sincerely do hope that a magical cure for every illness is found, but for now I look to the few science geniuses working on cures for cancer, AIDS, and other horrifying death traps.

Either way, I believe there are certain "cures" for everything out there. We just need to figure them out.

Accomplishments

I would like to say that I have a very solid work ethic for someone my age. I've been employed pretty much all the time since I've been 14 years old. At every job, I've always become the best person who works that job and/or gotten a promotion. I know plenty of people in high school who were never employed and completely relied on their parents for money. I'm glad my parents refused to give me money so I could go out and make my own. It helped me break up my time so I could still do well in school, make money, and still have time for other things.

I'm really proud of myself right now for being super productive over winter break. I held down 2 part-time jobs (that had very conflicting schedules which messed up my sleeping pattern) and took 3 credits worth of online classes. I was able to spend time with my boyfriend who is only non-long distance during this time of the year, hang out with my core friends regularly, catch up with old friends, even make some new friends. My family always had time with me, and I even had time to make a trip up to Delaware to visit extended family for the holidays. I exercised, got my Christmas shopping done early, and kept my room (fairly) clean. After taking 5 precious weeks out of a summer where I could have been making money, I paid for a trip to France. And I still have enough money in savings to give to charitable donations and every homeless person I see on the street. I know I'm tooting my own horn here, but as my mom says, if I'm not going to toot it, who will?

It's funny how you don't realize how successful you are until you list all of your accomplishments. Like how I was the number one employee at my college job AND made Dean's List for the first time. I guess it just took this long for me to figure out how to make life work. In a semester's time, I'll be walking across a stage on Wheeler Lawn and shaking hands with Dr. Cormier to accept my diploma. I hope this balance between time, money, education, and other accomplishments is just a preview for how the rest of my life will pan out. I can only hope.