Work

I really like my job. I think one of the most special things for me about my job is I get -- and in my church we have a very liturgical tradition -- so I get all dressed up in this alb with a stole and the whole deal, and … I'm a priest. And … they don’t even make priests’ clothes very well for women yet. And it's not like, it's certainly not like attractive anyways. And there are all these little girls in my congregation, just tons, who have probably never seen a woman dressed like that and standing up and presiding at the element and preaching a sermon, and preaching a sermon that I hope is relatively balanced between being emotional, and educational, and theological, and intellectual and all of those things. And that I think is really neat. I never saw that growing up, and now they can. Especially, in my own church setting.

And so I applied to nursing school because I figured teaching was four years. [I tried secretarial and I hated it.]  And nursing was a full three years. We didn’t have any summers off. You went to school and you worked continuously. And there were days you would work all day and then you’d have to go school or you would work all night [11-7] and then you’d have a full class load during the day. So that was it was--a very tight schedule for three years. And you stayed there.  You had a chance to go home, but not frequently. It was an unbelievable experience.  Our probationary period ended after six months. Many of the kids in my class [our ages were 16, 17, 18 years old], were put in charge of whole floors [called units now] at night, 11-7. That would never happen now, you know. Can you see like a little 18-year-old having responsibility for very sick people? That’s what was expected of you.

And it was so much fun after I got going, it was like—it was like everyone that came in was your family. It was close. Everybody knew each other. Everyone was friendly. And they actually started calling me “mom.” They said, “You’re like my mom when I’m away from home! You come and take care of me and you feed me!” And I started naming my breakfasts after the kids ‘cause they started making up their own breakfasts and what they liked, their favorite foods, or whatever. So the specials had their names on them.

"I’d just say to shoot for the stars. Again, whatever it is, whatever your passion is, go for it. And again, if you enjoy what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life."