School's On!
The Board of Regents (or whomever is in charge of scheduling) granted University of South Dakota students an extra week during the Winter Holidays to rest and recuperate from the rigors of fall term. We had one full, seven-day period to enjoy one more sledding outing or to share a few more cups of tea with a visiting relation or to read two more paperback novels.
Upon returning to the classroom today, I found that many of my Nursing School compatriots used their time as I had. Like me, my classmates’ extra week of vacation was squandered by sleeping late and generally lying around all day.
The boredom of our added holiday free time has had its desired effect …
This morning, I bounded out of bed at 7:16, an hour in which I had not seen the dawn of day in a month, and pressed a pot of coffee. Cheerfully, I showered, dressed, and breakfasted while listening to the morning’s news. With my first class due to commence at ten o’ clock, I bustled around the house, organizing my orientation materials, sharpening pencils, and carefully packing my backpack. Feeling chipper and happy despite the chill, I almost skipped the six blocks from my front door to Old Main and my classroom. During our two-hour class, nearly everyone expressed an eager, can-do! attitude in tackling tricky dosage math problems, signing up for the semester’s 225 clinical hours, completing electrocardiogram worksheets, and asking detailed, dynamic questions about the syllabus.
And so we begin this final semester of Nursing School … Winter vacation, I hardly knew ye.