My Nursing Career Was a Disaster

I am the youngest in my family, the youngest that is of three girls and three boys. Coming after the three boys, I don’t think I could help becoming a tomboy. My childhood memories consist of trolleys, skateboards, tree huts, raids on other tree huts, and earthy stuff like stomping through creeks and crawling underground through pipes “down the paddock”.

I became interested in nursing at a very young age thanks to the subtle programming by my parents (my father was a Doctor) and eventually chose it as a career option partly to please my father, partly for do-good ethics but also because as a Nurse I could travel.

The problem was; I didn’t like Nursing. I hated the shiftwork and felt like an alien with the other nurses who talked cosily about knitting and babies and boyfriends, which for some reason made me feel mute and uncomfortable.

I graduated and worked as a Registered Nurse for about 6 months before leaving. The day I left I couldn’t stop singing in the car on the way home, I was so ecstatic I was shouting out the words at the top of my voice as I drove. That was one of the happiest days of my life.