Focus on the Friends - Angela

 

Meet my friend Angela.  Today is her birthday!  Isn't she pretty?  She's smart too. Really smart.  Like make-you-rethink-if-you-know-anything-at-all smart.  I remember the day we met.  I was a RN on the telemetry unit.  She was an RN in the education department, and the ER, and a clinical coordinator.  I told you she was smart.  She came to the nurses station all dressed up and cute in heels and a retro coral skirt.  We introduced ourselves officially, as we had both known of the other - through her stepdaughter.  She then told me how she was going to be applying to NP school, had heard I was applying to NP school, and was wondering if we had similar plans.

Turns out we did.

We both were accepted into the same NP program, the same semester.  What started as a carpool, exploded into an adventurous two years, and built a friendship that remains a highlight of my life.  Oh I forgot to mention.  Not only is she pretty and smart.  She's crazy.  CRAAAAAZY.  Some of my favorite memories include almost dumping her treadmill out the back of her truck; her carrying at least five bags of crap into class each day; telling her I was pregnant; my first pregnancy barf on the rocks outside her house; racing airplanes; racing cars;  being bothered by (certain) lame teachers and classmates;  sitting in class for hours - eating;  spending many nights at her parent's house;  practicing new skills on her mom; my unborn babies having to wear ear-muffs; adding another carpooler and almost losing our lives; a BIG bloated dead cow; lots of procrastination; lots of bagels; lots of shopping; stopping for pies at Rock Springs; drafting a Heart and Vascular CV business plan (yeah they TOTALLY stole our idea); big dreams of serving the underserved and practicing medicine in other countries.

Now we get to be peers, and she is still my go-to for clinical perspective.  Life perspective too.  She's a leader, a visionary, and did I mention smart? 

When we were going through NP school it seemed like an eternity, like it would never end.  I would have NEVER guessed I would look back on that time as one of the greatest seasons of my life.  Not the school part, but the Angela part for sure.