Human relationships, and friendships, are really really viral in nature. By viral I am not using the term in relation to viruses, but rather in relation to the nature in which there is a spread, a contagion, in the process through which people get to know each other. A common buzz word in the world of internet marketing is “viral marketing” which means promoting information or products that other customers are compelled to give to other friends, colleagues and family. By definition viral marketing is a way to promote a service or product exponentially. When effectively done one person will give it to several people who in turn will promote it to several other people.

The reason I am thinking about this now is that I’m planning a party. I graduate on Thursday, so I decided it would be nice to throw a “little” party on Friday for my friends as a way to say Thank you for their support, and to celebrate this journey I’ve been through.

I started with a guest list of about 12, and then I decided that I should invite some of my good friends from my class to come too, if they didn’t have parties of their own. So that shot my guest list up to about 22. Then I started thinking about each person I had invited and realized that if I invited X, then I would have to invite Y, because I had come to know Y through X, and then I would have to invite Z, because come to think of it, we’d all hung out a few times together, etc. Now multiply this by about 10 and you can see why my guest list is currently at 45 and growing!!! That’s the viral nature of friendships, and relationships. That’s one of the factors that makes applications like Facebook and MySpace so powerful, because they appeal to this viral nature in which people relate to and interact with each other.

Anyway, it’s an interesting thought… and I still don’t know what I’ll do with 45 people, but they’re all invited, and we’ll figure it out. It’ll be fun, if nothing else!!

Today I had my very last lecture of nursing school! I walked into class, placed my bag down, and said to everyone in the room, “Can you guys believe this is our very last day of lecture together ever?” There was a slight moment of silence, not because people had forgotten, but because there was something about hearing it said that I think made it even more real.

What made it more poignant was that it was also the instructor’s last class at the school, and we are the last class that the current Dean is graduating. A lot of lasts. A lot of finales.

We had a good lecture, then went to the formal luncheon I mentioned in yesterday’s post, and then back for the second half of class. After lecture I gave my friend Chris a hug for sitting next to me all through nursing school, putting up with my dorky comments, gracing me with her interesting facial expressions whenever someone said something weird in class (and believe me, that happened a LOT), and for being there. I also gave my instructor a big hug to say thank you for investing herself in me, for sharing her wealth of knowledge, and for being a wonderful instructor. I could have hugged every single person in that classroom and I would have had a unique reason for hugging each person, because it really has been an amazing journey with amazing people, but then I think they would all have thought they’ve underestimated my weirdness all this time…

Tomorrow and Wednesday I have my last clinicals, and then Thursday is a day off for all those who never missed a clinical day this semester, so I get to sleep in and rest some. Monday morning we do the final exam and then start the senior elective.

It’s winding down… yes it is!

Classic statement that! This is what my clinical instructor said to us yesterday. I thought it was so meaningful that I haven’t forgotten it since. Here’s the thing. Critical Care is tough! It’s the toughest part of Nursing School that you ever have to go through, but so far I LOVE it. The paperwork is insane, the patients have numerous conditions, all of which have to be correlated and put together; I have not been able to sleep more than 2 hours a night during clinical nights, and from the volumes of paperwork I’ve had to type I think I have no fingerprints left… I don’t want to check though.

Think of all the possibilities… no fingerprints… hmmmm…

Anyway, I digress. I love the rotation, and I love the instructor. I have learned a tremendous amount of information in these three weeks about putting the pieces together, and about what questions to ask to be able to make the correlations I need for my patients. I have learned of illnesses I had never really heard of, and I have learned that caring makes a world of difference. I have learned that Critical really does mean Critical, and that it’s called intensive care for a reason. And I love it.

Here’s another classic statement from the same instructor:
You have to be perfect, because if you’re not, people die.

How much do you want to bet that I will never forget that statement? Some might consider it too much pressure, unfair pressure, unrealistic pressure. I don’t. I consider it a call from the heart, which is what I believe it is. I like where it’s coming from, and I think I like where I feel it’s taking me.

One more week in Critical Care, and then off to the ER.

And yes, I am still alive. And I still haven’t thought about the dying and ethics thing yet, and I haven’t played any Wii in ages…