Tentative Plans

Yesterday I had a talk with my manager. I hated to tell her that I am planning to leave, but I knew I could not put it off any longer. She was extremely gracious, as I knew she would be. I was able to tell her the things I wanted to about how I have enjoyed working with her and the staff on the floor and my reasons for leaving. She told me that I have contributed a lot to Joseph 2B (my unit), that I should use her for a reference, and that she would give me raving reviews. Then she gave me a hug. I told her about my plans and goals. After that, I had such a load off my shoulders and felt so free! Some of you already know what I've been brainstorming about, but here are my tentative plans from now until January in a nutshell.

Mama, Daddy, Anna, and Angela are planning to come visit at the end of this month. We hope to travel up north to Voyager National Park and see things along the way as well, like the headwaters of the Mississippi and the lake country that Minnesota is so well known for. It will be cold up there, and one of my friends that worked at the national park for four summers said there may still be some ice fishing going on up there. I guess we'll brave it.

I have some more vacation time in late May. I may drive home seeing some people along the way and taking a car load of things.

In June, July, and the first week of August I will be working with a nursing student for the same internship that I did here two summers ago (has it really been that long!). We have already communicated via email, and I am very excited to meet her!

My official stop date at work will probably be around mid August. This has been in my head since November, but I didn't want to make it too widely known until things were more final. I want to be near home for awhile again, whether it is only a year or more. I feel that I need to spend some more time with my sisters, parents, grandparents, and anyone else who would like to frequent the area. I've debated at length on what area of nursing I would like to apply for, and my plan now is to apply for a job in Amarillo in an emergency department. If that doesn't work out, I'll have to make a plan B.

However, I have the usual itch to travel. I'm checking into the possibility of going to Peru or some place in Latin America to study Spanish and volunteer for September through November. That would help me become much closer to being bilingual and should help so much at an ER in Texas. At the same time, I think it would be amazing to get to take a break from routine nursing to explore international possibilities and just get to enjoy the culture, people, and environment of that area. One of the schools has a one month study/volunteer opportunity in Manu National Park http://www.manu-national-park.info/, which sounds amazing to me! Then there are the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Machu%20Picchu&m=tags&s=int to visit, along with the possibility of hiking the Inca trail. There are multiple language schools in Cusco and other cities and villages where I might study a few hours a day and find volunteer work from orphanages to hospitals to homes for street kids to English tutoring.

After that, perhaps I will enjoy December and the holidays with my family before starting work in January. Sound like a plan? Obviously, there are multiple details to work out, and I know that God has a way of changing and molding my plans, so we will see what happens. For now, I am excited about making the most of my summer here while trying to make plans and remain flexible about the future.