2nd Lieutenant Nurse Katherine?

  Today I woke up from a nap (after my typical morning energy crash from studying too late the night before and refraining from caffeine until my nap occurs) (So college) to grab my salad and head to my Student Nursing Association meeting run by my University. Little did I know that I would later on be giving an Army Recruiter my information for more details.
   I was never an Army girl, but I did consider it, and like many, had decided it was not for me. While my infinite respect was with the soldiers, my heart was back home in a hospital taking care of children. Army Nursing was a thought- but never quite an option. My grandparents had both been an Army Doctor and Nurse during the Korean War era, but that is about all the family relation I had to it. But being so much like my grandmother (In so many ways), naturally once this option was presented....I just couldn't quite ignore it.
   I watched a presentation that outlined Health Care within he US Army (which is pretty stupendous) and describing how well-rounded the system was. Despite what I had thought before, the AMEDD contains all of the fields a normal hospital would have- including pediatrics (as of now my specialty). Ok, so that's kindof neat, I don't know how many Army children there are though if I were on Active Duty. I was also presented with the option of going on Active Duty vs. Reserve, which essentially means AD is full time, overseas nursing in whatever country I would be stationed in (Germany-Kuwait- Afghanistan, you never know) and doing lots of humanitarian type work with a shift similar to that of a regular hospital, just overseas full time. Reserve is when you only serve when you are needed locally on weekends typically- so it would be like having a second job. The only position I would be given is Nurse, so I would never have to physically step into battle. That's good, it's not scary pow-pow Army. The training I would have would just be leadership courses and a 15 day course which would just be a bit of prep in addition to Army protocol (how to march, etc.). Wow, so I wouldn't even have to leave the country..
The benefits are fantastic. Aside from the reward service gives, there are travel opportunities, low cost insurance, starting as an officer, low-no cost benefits, No-cost/housing allowance, amazing retirement benefits, and here's the kicker- if I want to pursue more education goals (such as move up to Nurse Practitioner) they cover it. The Army promotes education and having the highest quality medical staff they can have, so they are firm believers in pursuing education/career goals. That's BIG.
   So you can understand why this caught my attention. This choice could take care of me for the rest of my life in addition to the satisfaction of travel via humanitarian work. How could you ignore something that offered that much?
   I can apply after I've had 2 years of hospital work here, so this would not be an impulse- I have time. I can make sure to establish myself before I apply and make that decision. Otherwise if I graduate with my BSN in addition to obtaining my license (duh), I am eligible.

  Thinking of my future, it certainly has it's benefits, but I have to take everything into consideration. What if I have a family? What if this delay me from having a family? What if my family dynamic does not mesh with this? What if future husband has problems with it? What happens if it's not what I think it is? What happens if I'm not cut out for it but signed the contract? What happens if something happens to my family at home and I can't come back? There are certainly several considerations to take in about this for sure..
  So there's that. For the first time in my life, I am considering joining the Army. Maybe it is for me, maybe it's not. I have lots of time and prayer to figure that out, so for now, I'm just taking life one step at a time and basking in the idea that I have so many options.

Jams

This is how I've been getting my work done- espresso and Lorde keep the good grades in Medical Terms!

The Gristle about being Green

I am a vegetarian.

 Yep. I'm another one who actually prefers a salad over a steak. One of THOSE people...But my reasoning is not the reasoning you assume it is.
  I get asked all the time, "So is it a taste thing, are you doing it for health reasons...why?", as if my diet was like wearing shoes on my hands and wearing hats on my captains-quarters too (much love to anyone who caught that reference). Like many other things, I'm an obtuse hybrid of many different answers. So when that question pops up, I have a not the simple explanation, but a chain of events that lead to a very teenaged catharsis.
  I started giving up meat for years in a row for lent (I'm catholic raised), because I figured that would be a great challenge in addition to my Lenten contribution. I didn't (still don't) drink soda, and was tired of saying I'd give up chocolate so I tried out meat. And loved it. So I did it the next year, and the next year and the next until it became routine. Until I wanted to do it every year, until I never wanted to stop. I realized, that ultimately the only thing keeping me from doing it permanently was that my dad was getting super tired of having to make separate food for me.
  Ask yourself this. If you were to cut out meats from your diet, what greasy food would you be digesting? The answer is honestly...just cheesy foods. I realized that by cutting out a majority of the grease and fat in my diet that wasn't a simple carb....I just felt overall cleaner. No more greasy burger binges to feel guilty about, no more nuggets to keep track of, no more even having to worry about if your food is cooked all the way through. When I eat clean, I feel clean. Plus the added bonus of knowing that my food didn't at one point have eyes!
  I'm not telling you to go green. I'm not going to sit you down in front of a youtube video of Pamela Anderson standing in front of a slaughterhouse watching the production line go by looking upset. I'm not demanding justice or throwing red paint. If you're a carnivore at heart, then cool. But if your mantra is "Oh I could never do that", then you are also selling yourself short.
  Our society has become way too dependent on meats to get us through our courses. I think we all know a generous number of people who at the mere mention of going meatless get a little bit anxious. Renowned gastronomer and head chef at multiple restaurants Jose Andres comments in an interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes, "Fruits and vegetables are so much sexier than a piece of chicken.Come on, think about it for a second, okay? Let's compare a chicken breast, the best chicken breast from the best farm with a beautiful pineapple. Cut the pineapple, already the aromas are inundating the entire kitchen. Acidity. Sour after notes, touches of passion fruit.[...] You get a piece of meat and you put it in your mouth, you chew, the first five seconds, all the juices flow around your mouth, they're gone, and then you are 20 more seconds chewing something that is tasteless at this point. Something like this doesn't happen with a pineapple, an asparagus, or a green pea."(http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-6437352.html). And he makes a brilliant point. There is no gristle in a vegetable. You won't get sick if your rice wasn't cooked all the way through. And that smoky savory flavor you love from a steak will be gone while a similar taste is preserved with a sautéed mushroom.
  The design of our teeth demonstrate how humans were not designed to attack and tear up a bunch of meat- our canines are nothing compared to that of real carnivores. Our digestion tract adapted to breakdown meats over the years. The fact that we can't digest raw meat proves it!
  So to all the other vegetarians out there- enjoy the feeling and celebrate the clean way of eating. Because we know we really are not missing out. To all of the people who swear by meat eating- enjoy it enough for all of us! And to the people who aren't sure, I say try it. See if it's for you. Get your proteins in (via beans, nuts, corn, grains and soys) as well as your carbohydrates. Try substituting the alternatives into regular dishes (they have half the fat that meat does!) and see if that gets you through your cravings. But no matter your diet, be sure to give your fruits and veggies a little love, because they are pretty great.

Helpless- The Program

This is a program I worked on with my brilliant partner Molly T. We broke off with the central theme of "Loved ones who don't love themselves enough" and this is what ultimately ensued. Each of us wrote about some of our closest friends, and I know that this poem was one of the heaviest I've written. We read this at a local Open Mic at my University. The following was my contribution, but the video contains hers as well (simply because I don't have a copy of hers). Enjoy!

Will.

He was about like anyone else except for
   he walked with question marks and rumors in place of his shadow.
I didn't know much about him except for what I had heard but his demeanor drew me in until I knew he wasn't a question mark. And over the course of four years he grew to be the only man I knew who was enthralled with the way I spoke who felt admiration-     never desire.

Now people have told me they were gay before but I had never been "come out" to before. No one was more concerned with what I had to say more than him.
   That is- I'd never seen anxiety wash over someone
my opinion has never had more impact.
 I felt the weight of my peers hate cut me in half when my best friend looked me in honest eye contact and admitted that he
                                                     would give anything
                                                      try everything
                                                                  something.

                                                                  For him to just be straight.
And when I felt the weight of hate that no counter-rumor or anesthesia could abate I simple nodded and tried to pay him all the casualty this moment could afford
   because I knew that some of our closest friend didn't have it in them to be casual
and I couldn't watch as he became a casualty of his own confinement.

I hadn't loved someone like I had loved him before because this wasn't a sexual kind of affectional this was actual love like you love your little brother because you knew he could never break your heart and you would do anything in this world for NO ONE to break his.

When your savior was crucified for the sake of mankind to love each other how can you be so blind when you use your judgment to drive nails into the palms of someone close to your heart and turn your back to condemn him for his love?

So I looked at him with honest eye contact, put his palm safe in mine and told him that I'll say anything he wants me to as long as someday, if God's grace wills it, he can live by his own free will
   and I promised him that no matter what-
                  he will always be the Will to my Grace.

Chivalry Cannot be Dead

Hey guys!
    Something came to my attention the other day that I keep thinking about, so I wanted to share my thoughts on the topic.
    My boyfriend is a gentleman with British-Canadian roots ( I use the term gentleman purposefully), who was raised to British standards. By that I mean he was taught at a young age to hold doors open for people (not just ladies, although always for a lady), pull out chairs, pays for dates, sit/stand straight and to introduce himself to every newcomer by shaking their hand. After introduced to my friends, my lady friends later remarked to me how they had wished more guys held themselves to this same code of conduct, where as the guys just looked at each other. Later on that week I overheard a conversation in which a group of guys were saying, "Girls don't want  chivalry anymore, they never go for the nice guy", which got me fired up.
    I say this not to mean "my-boyfriend-is-better-than-yours", but what they said really made me think.

    The "old school" way of behaving is something that has completely changed over the years. Not to say that all men burp and slap doors in women's faces (now THAT would be something to get fired up about), as a society we do still have COURTESY. However madamenoire.com makes a good point when it lists the 7 ways that chivalry has died in our American culture, such as swearing in front of strangers, not giving up your seat for those who could use it and letting weaker individuals struggle with heavy-lifting. It has become a rare occasion (and too many women can agree with me) to encounter a gentleman who will help you carry a heavy suitcase or give up a seat on the subway for you. Our British roots are fading, and we are slowly forgetting what makes us gentlemen/women all the time- not just in front of people we try to impress.
     I did some asking around on the floor of my dorm (which is already pretty diverse in nature) to see what my floor-mates had to say about this particular issue. Several women said when asked that they rarely ever encounter the true forms of every-day chivalry (such as the 7 ways that were previously mentioned), and almost all of them agreed that they wish it would appear more prevalent in our society. When asking the guys what keeps them from being more chivalrous, they replied that they simply don't think about it. Few commented that they were not raised that way, and others even said that they didn't think it was a thing anymore and therefore didn't care. Yeah.
    Guys, it is time to graduate to Gentlemen. Most women agree that they significantly appreciate true chivalry, and I'll even go further to say it is one of the things I noticed first about a guy when I first meet him. In fact, it is one of my favorite aspects of my relationship and in turn even reminds me to give him my utmost respect-it keeps me a lady...not that I would be anything otherwise, but you get my point. When you respect....you get respect back.
     So remember to always be a gentleman or gentlewoman not just when you want to impress someone, but all the time. You may cause someone to do it for someone else, and that could lead to a domino effect of polite and proper proportions.

I am - an Introduction

I Am-                                                 

    a speaker                                                      
    a listener                                                 
    a poet                                                         
    a redhead                                                  
    a nerd                                                        
    a yoga practioner                                     
    a sister                                                        
    a vegetarian                                               
    a dog lover                                                 
    a singer                                                       
    a version of my mother                                
    a star gazer                                                   
    a dancer                                                       
    a nurse                                                      
    an adult child                                             
    an occasional writer                                      
    an eternal student                                     
    a believer                                                       
    a caffeine fueled maverick                          
    an artist
    a team member
    tall for a lady
    a biologist
    a psychologist
    a tattoo lover
    a granola cruncher
    a ukulele and mandolin player
    a silly girl
    a Disney princess
    a vague pacifist
    a list maker
    a note taker
    a lady above all.