Thursday, March 06, 2008

My Unprofessional Enthusiasm


Nursing school has driven me so crazy I chopped off all of my hair w/ a dull knife. Um, I'm kidding, of course. I had my hair cut by a professional w/ sharp scissors. And, though nursing school *is* driving me crazy I have been planning to cut my hair for a while. And now I look like every other Woman Of A Certain Age in my town except that my clothes aren't as nice and I wear a backpack more often. But I love my hair short and I probably wont go back to long hair even though I think it looks rock 'n' roll when women w/ white or gray hair have long, tidy braids. Why haven't you short-haired people mentioned how comfortable and easy short hair is? I guess I always associated short hair w/ lots of gummy, gooey, stinky hair products and blow dryers and those creepy circular combs that would = painful and tedious extraction for a long-haired person. So, there's my before and after pics.

I'm so flustered and fed up w/ school right now I don't even want to talk about it w/ you. My peds instructor (you know, the mean and confused one) pulled me into her office during my own time and told me that I approach her too enthusiastically. Um, ok. I said, "Uh, I'll work on that. I'll try to approach you more...[ and here I sought the word that would express the opposite of enthusiastically and came up w/ boringly, disinterestedly, dully, cautiously, but settled on] calmly." And that wasn't good enough for her. She had to tell me that my enthusiasm is "unprofessional".

OK, I don't know what profession you're in, but tell me: How is enthusiasm unprofessional? And my profession, currently (in case I need to remind you) is Student. Enthusiasm is in my job description. So, my sister (do you have one of those - a sister? I *highly* recommend one for occasions such as these.) says to me: "Maybe she meant that you're rude and bossy." And then my sister (she's a teacher) got upset and demanded that I seek justice. So after I cried and questioned my chosen Student profession (been doing a lot of that lately) I did speak w/ the authorities and, it turns out, that was the right thing to do. And, let me say, I'm not telling you the whole story here because it's worse than the enthusiasm comment and I'm counting down the days until the end of this rotation which is sad as anything that is sad because I love peds if I blur my eyes and imagine the dream instructor who is not confused and mean.

I haven't been baking much. Finals week is coming up and that must mean that one of my kids' birthdays is coming up (because that's such a convenient time to bake a gigantic cake, find some good gifts and throw a party!) and when you combine birthdays and finals around the Student Nurse home the baking fun never ends!

11 comments:

Kitt said...

I opened this post and said, "Holy cow! She really did it!" It looks really good. I mean that. Though I liked the braids, too.

I'm sorry school is so stressful. Mean instructors suck. How the hell can you reprimand a student for enthusiasm?! That's just wrong.

Anonymous said...

I agree with "Kitt". As a teacher (and "supportive" sister) I would give anything for a little enthusiasm every once and a while. Instead I get slouchy groans all the time. Maybe you should slouch and groan more often.

Molly said...

Thanks Kitt!

And, it's funny, "supportive sister", I have been slouchy and grumpy and the instructor has been nicer. It's...unsettling.

Anonymous said...

OH molly - that is horrible! what a wench! I'd love to hear the rest of the story. Just think...there are *always* bad apples in the bunch. It has nothing to do with you.
Katherine

Anonymous said...

She probably writes NCLEX questions for fun.

Anonymous said...

Since when is enthusiasm unprofessional? I'm sorry to hear that the teacher gave you such a hard time. Your enthusiasm will be appreciated in L&D, if that makes you feel any better. =) On the bright side, one more day and then we're done with clinicals. Yay! Maybe we should have saved the hooray the quarter's over cake for this quarter. =)
Marlene

Molly said...

We need a "Hurray, the quarter's over" cake right about now. Maybe it will make the quarter be over.

Thanks Marlene.

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