Because my birthday wasn’t until March 9th, I was
only 16 years old for most of my senior year at Our Lady of Wisdom Academy. At this young age, the prospect of attending
four more years of school was unbearable; I saw it as a monstrous chunk out of
my life! So, even though I thought I
would really enjoy being a High School Algebra or Geometry teacher, I couldn’t
imagine committing to this much more education. I was also frightened when I thought about
the prospect of having to stand up in front of a class and teach.
I also couldn’t be a secretary since the girls in the
academic program at my high school weren’t allowed to take typing or any other
commercial subjects. I had no serious, viable marriage prospects
at that point in my life, so the role of housewife and mother didn’t appear to
be an immediate option. And as I have already alluded to at the
beginning of my story, entering a convent was out of the question. The thought of becoming a nun literally made
me sick to my stomach.
Thanks to my baby sister, Meg, I now knew one thing for
certain - I loved taking care of babies. Then I found out that Nursing
School, although still a painfully long time, was a wee bit shorter than
college, only 3 years as opposed to 4. Lastly, I was awarded a N.Y.S. Regents
Scholarship for Nursing that would completely cover the cost of my nurses
training program. I was offered a measly,
relatively useless financial “incentive” award if I had decided to attend college and I
came from a household where we didn’t have a whole heck of a lot of extra money floating around. My “chosen” path was becoming clearer and
clearer. I would become a nurse and take care of babies for the rest of my life!
Wonderful
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