life, the universe, and donna

The schools I have gone to:

Alice Brown Elementary (first half of Kindergarten. Actually, I’m not sure if this was the school — give me a break, I was 4, what do I know? Anyway, it was an elementary school in Brookswood, I think this was it. Mom will correct me if I’m wrong.)

Harold Bishop Elementary (we moved halfway through kindergarten. I finished out the year here, in Guildford.)

Cloverdale Elementary (Grades 1-5. School is now a “traditional” school, by which I think they mean they don’t allow art or teh gay. Strangely enough, located in Cloverdale.)

Latimer Road Elementary (Grades 6-7. Also in Cloverdale. We moved around Cloverdale a fair amount.)

Cloverdale Junior High (Grade 8. The last year this school existed, it was then converted into a french immersion school, Martha Currie Elementary… coincidentally, this is where Carol Ann goes.)

Lord Tweedsmuir High (grade 9-12. While this is technically the same school both my parents went to, they went to the old Tweedsmuir. At the same time that CJS got converted to a french immersion, they tore down the old LTS and rebuilt a new one. It looks like a jail and overlooks the race track.)

Kwantlen University College (Richmond Campus. Started a comp sci program, discovered that programming makes me want to rip off your arm. Yes, yours.)

Camosun College (Victoria. Took a single accounting class, but dropped it when I got promoted at work and couldn’t get to class on time anymore.)

Kwantlen (again. This was just an online course.)

Emily Carr (photography course. It was fun. I learned to develop film!)

Langara (3-4 years of Random Classes That Look Interesting. Took a lot of Women’s Studies classes with some psych & sociology thrown in for flavor. Wound up with 30 credits, go me!)

BCIT (Technical Writing. It, too, was pretty awesome.)

Justice Institute (Emergency Medical Responder course.)

I might be forgetting some, but that’s what I got so far.

Anyway, why do I post this? Because as of September 17th, I’m adding one more:

BCIT (Basic Health Sciences, BHSC 0100 – Human Biology)

Why? Because this is the only pre-requisite I need to get into the Licensed Practical Nursing program at VCC. You may recall a few weeks ago, I wrote about how I can no longer proceed in my paramedic dream. Which is thoroughly disappointing, but I’m not calling any of that wasted: It really, really made me understand how much I love health care. Emergency health care specifically, but there are ways to make that work. So, I spoke with the adviser at VCC a few days ago, and here’s what we came up with:

I am one pre-requisite shy of being eligible for the VCC LPN program — that being an equivalent to Biology 12, taken in the last 5 years. Well, not only did I graduate high school considerably more than 5 years ago, but I never took biology anyway. Chemistry, yes. Physics, yes. Computer Science, yes. But Biology? No, I was a stupid kid and played the part prescribed to me as an unpopular, awkward girl desperately trying to fit in: in that, “eww, gross things are gross.” Fuck that noise. Gross things are awesome.

But that’s fine, my lack of biology classes in high school don’t matter. And conveniently, from my EMR class, I have a decent amount of basic human biology understanding now. Still, need the pre-req, so this is it. I have two options: I could, through the Vancouver School Board, take biology 12. My adviser thinks that I could probably get them to waive the biology 11 requirement, as I’ve not only been out of high school for 12 years, but I have post secondary education and some healthcare training already. Unfortunately, from my research, the scheduling doesn’t really work for me. Pity, since that’d be free. But that’s fine, I think the BCIT class will be awesome, especially since it’s got a healthcare focus.

Anyway, so the LPN program has a two year waitlist that is probably only a one year waitlist. The “official” waitlist has to include everybody who’s applied for the program, but since many of the people offered a seat will decline it, they estimate it’s only about a year. This works for me. And in the meantime, I will work on getting the rest of the pre-requisites for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program (may be more familiar if I refer to it as an RN). That is, currently, my end goal. Of course, knowing me, this will probably change, but I need something to work toward even if I modify it later.

So, there we go. I take the BCIT biology class, apply for the LPN program. Then I work on getting the BSN prerequisites and apply there. There’s no waitlist for the BSN program. Whichever accepts me first, I take. If it’s the LPN program, it’s a one year certificate program, and then after 900 hours of work, I’m eligible for the LPN-to-BSN program, which gets me into the third year of the BSN program. If it’s the BSN program, I take 3-4 years, and get my BSN.

Where does the emergency come into this? Well, the BSN has a few electives, and several of them are ER related. Plus there’s post-degree education that I can use to specialize further. At the moment, that’s the way I want to aim my education. If I can’t work in a pre-hospital setting, I’d like to work in a first-contact hospital setting. I think that’d be awesome.

Bonus: A very dear friend of mine has been working on her pre-reqs for the same LPN program for ages, and coincidentally we should both be ready to apply at the same time. It would be AWESOME to have someone I know & love in class with me. Built in study partner!

In any event… I’m extremely excited. No matter how this turns out, I have career goals again, and this makes me very, very happy. I drift a bit when I’m not sure where I’m going, and not 100% happy where I am. I managed to get my personal life sorted out to the point where I’m so happy I could pee a little, now to get my professional life on the same track.

Now, if I could get my finances to where I’m happy with them… I’d be 3/3, but what the hell, let’s dump a few years of student loans on them instead, eh?

I should also mention a huge thank you to my current employer who is extremely understanding of my career aspirations, considering they tend to involve things like “I’ll eventually be quitting… but please continue paying me in the meantime. No, I don’t know exactly when I’ll be quitting. Yes, my estimated length of continued employment keeps changing.” I really, really like my place of employment, and the people I work with are absolutely fantastic. I might not be super crazy about the work I’m doing anymore, but that has NOTHING to do with the people — the people make it absolutely worthwhile.