Well today I finally finished my application to the University of Minnesota's nursing program. It was kind of a lengthy process due to the requirements and my procrastination. The most difficult part of the application that I found to be quite challenging for some strange reason was the essay section. I had to write about life experiences such as volunteer work, create a resume, and also write a one page essay on what in my experiences prepares me to work with a broad array of people and situations... I felt a lot of pressure from this requirement because I believe that the essays will make or break the application/acceptance. So I went to town. I got the resume out of the way that was very easy.
Then I began with the essay. It was really weird to reflect back on my life and try and answer the prompt to the best of my ability. Different cheesy things were coming to mind to write about but nothing seemed to be worthy of the University standards. Then I remember a course that I am currently enrolled in Human Relations Education with Dr. Bussler. One requirement in the course is to participate in some type of service learning in particular with a group of people that we don't feel comfortable with. For instance, in class we had to rank which group we felt the most comfortable with to the least comfortable. The groups included: race, ability, gender, sexual orientation, class, age, and religion. I felt very encouraged with this assignment. It makes each student step out of our comfort-zones and look within ourselves. Anyway I chose race and class for my service learning experience. I attended the service learning conference at MSU and signed up for the Theresa House. Which is an amazing organization that provides an emergency shelter for families and single women, which gives particular attention to refugees and immigrants.
I decided that my experiences with the Theresa House would be my best answer to the applications question. It was actually very difficult to limit what I had to say. Hopefully the University of Minnesota will appreciate my honesty and experience. I just finished the entire application just before class and its ready to be mailed off.
The MSU nursing application process is much different. The acceptance is based on GPA alone, no experience is necessay, no resume, and no volunteer work. After finishing the U of M's application process I believe that my making these options open for releasing other personal experience and information better reflects the individuals applying.

I decided that this winter vacation I wasn't going to stress my self out with work and take much needed time to relax from a stressful semester. I took exactly a week off at work to stay at home and enjoy some much needed family time. The holidays never feel the same without the family traditions. So I participated in the usual with my parents and two sisters: cross country skiing, cooking, shopping, a holiday play, decorating, and planning our traditional family Christmas Eve. Each Christmas Eve every member in our family chooses their special appetizer that will be served at our brunch. The appetizer followed my mothers famous colossal sized home made cinnamon rolls. This is my favorite day of the year. After gorging ourselves with the arrangement of food we then precede to gifts. A couple years ago my dad bought a kick ass digital camera and is now obsessed with the idea of taking as many family pictures possible at every event. Which even though can be annoying at times is actually kind of cool, because right after returning from an event he jumps on his computer and loads all the pictures on files and makes a slide show to music. I like the idea of being taken back to an event. After the assortment of photo's we went to my grandparents home and had a wonderful tradional Christmas. The rest of the week kept up the same spirit. Except that the week seemed to be over before I knew it.

I unfortunately had to return to Mankato for work. I ended up being in Mankato for four days and working each day, although I really do enjoy my job it just wan't the ideal place to spend my break. Currently I am working at New Ulm Medical Center in the emergency room and business services. Before New Ulm I worked in Mercy Hospital in the cities holding the same posistion and since both hospitals are Allina facilities I transferred hospitals for the time being. The atmosphere of small town hospitals and small towns in general are so different from what I am used to. The chief complaint currently from New Ulm patients is bowel obstruction instead of the usual internal bleeding, head wounds, or cardiac arrest from the cities. But people are much more warm and friendly in smaller towns, well New Ulm anyway... I grew up in Andover, a well-to-do surban city north metro, and wholly shit do all the residents know it. So the experience of small towns are really quite amusing and interesting to me.

After working in Mankato for a few day, I visisted my boyfriend at his home town Paynesville, Minnesota. This town is like a whole different world to me it consists of a population of 2300. One huge difference that I noticed is friendships and loyalty. Don't get me wrong I have great friends and am very loyal to them, but in small towns its different. They seem to be like family. Its kind of refreshing actually. We ended up spending New Years there. A good friend of ours had a huge wild New Years party, it was a drunken fest. I participated in the usual: the count down, the popping of the champaine cork, and the kiss. There was this really strange kid at that party though. He showed up really early and no one knew him or who he came with and he ended up drinking way too much and passed out in the entry way of the house and was out for a good few hours. Being the nursing student that I am, I thought that it would be a good idea to check on him to make sure that there wasn't anything too crucial going on . So I proceeded over and gave him my assessment and concluded that he was just completely shit-faced. The next morning he got a ride home and was just fine.

The rest of my break I spent with my friends kicking back and drinking a few. I was actually pretty active. I went to Afton Alps a bunch. I actually think that I left a dent on one of the runs. Damn, your first time out of the winter sucks. I bought a new snowboard this winter and put it to good use. My boyfriend and I took a bunch of our friends out snow tubing to Hill-Billy-Hills in Cold Spring. It was my first time ever snow tubing, I expected a lazy ride down the hill and nothing too exciting. Quite the contrary, there was this absolutely crazy run called Devils Dive and it was honestly a 120 ft wall. When a tuber would go down the run you wouldn't be able to see them for two seconds, it sloped inward. It was a rush, especially since at the end of the run there was a pond that looked very slushy, safe I know.

The first expectation that comes to mind that I have for ENG 101 is that this course will help me to be able to develop better research papers. I want to be able to express myself in writing and learn to communicate very effectively through writing. I readily enjoy reading novels and flash fictions. This class will hopefully better prepare me for becoming an effective creative writer.

A weakness in English composistion that I exhibit is a lack of knowledge in the basic elements such as my over use of comma's and run-on sentances. I have taken a few English courses and have developed my writing abilities, although I tend to forget the basic components of grammar. I have already taken a English 101 course my freshman year and I received a B. This grade was due to my lack of attendance being the young and wild freshman girl that I was. Now I am a third year student nursing major and I decided to retake English for a better grade.
I look forward to this class to better educate myself with a background in the basics of research, correct grammar and the correct use of comma's and eliminating run-on sentances. I really want to be able to produce excellent research papers and essay's. The one thing that I would say that I would be afraid of in this course would be for me to leave the class with out improving my skills.

Since the beginning of the course the instructor has been able to keep my attention with his overwhelming amount of fun-loving engergy and I plan on thoroughly enjoying this course. I expect the insturctor to be very knowledgable on the various topics discussed throughout class and be able opperate a fun learning environment. Also I expect the instructor to assist me and my classmates with any type of course related questions and concerns. I really appreciate that this class's assignments and contents is on D2L. I find it much easier to locate assignments and information regarding the course online. The instructors grading system is very gracious and lenient. The fact that students are able to revise any assignments that were handed in on time is truely a grade-saver. Also I believe that by this grading system it helps the student to demonstrate effective writing by determining the errors and revising the paper. Another aspect of the course that I believe that I will enjoy is the peer review or workshopping. When your peers review your work I beleive that they bring a whole other dimension to your paper with their input and ideas.