New Beginings

I have always envied those people who can "pick up stakes" and "follow their bliss". I have never been one of those people. I became a nurse right out of high school, and I always knew what type of nurse I would be. I wanted to be a nurse with integrity and character but also one who exhibits trustworthiness and compassion. I have always sought excitement and a fast paced career, so Emergency Nursing was a great fit for me... but flight nursing... now that is the "stuff". I knew from the first time I saw a tall slim long haired nurse step out of the Samaritan Helicopter 16 years ago that she had to have the coolest job on Earth! As I got deeper and deeper into nursing I never lost that belief. I have worked my entire professional career to get the experience I needed to become a flight nurse. When I had gotten the experience I needed it looked like I still would not be able to do it because to steal a line from the movie "Tommy Boy"... "I had a little bit of a weight problem". I worked so very hard to loose that weight so that nothing would hold me back, and I became a flight nurse... and I was right! It is indeed the coolest job in the world! I started working for a company whose mission I believe in deeply because I know that I am serving an undeserved community. But like all good things this "dream job" has a darker side, a dangerous, and painful side.

Over the last year and a half since I became a flight nurse several nurses, medics, and pilots have lost their lives doing the same job I do every day, and 2 more died this past week. So it is time for me to take a break from the long hours away from home, the late night phone calls that wake us from deep sleep, and the occasional frightening moments that make the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

Never in my life have I ever quit a job without having another job lined up, but this past Thursday... I did. Life is so very short and I want to be one of these people who "follow their bliss". If I could only figure out what that means :).

How does one begin to do this? Where do they start? How does it work? I have always allowed nursing to "pay my bills" but I have already done the coolest job in nursing and I am EXHAUSTED by it right now, so where does one begin to make a "new beginning"?