10/26/2026
girl grip: RN edition 🏥🩺 my story hasn’t been linear whatsoever. but if i could tell my nervous 22-year-old baby nurse self one thing, it would be this: there will be seasons when you feel so far behind and others when you feel exactly where you’re supposed to be. and both will teach you something. every job, every pivot, every season of life has given me something i didn’t have before. wisdom, compassion, confidence, perspective.
i’ve learned that “i don’t know” and “this is my first time doing this” are perfectly okay things to say. that advocating for others can be both beautiful and incredibly difficult. that you can learn to see things from multiple perspectives without abandoning your own.
age 22 → started as a cardiac nurse, nervous as could be
• age 24 → had my first baby and became a stay-at-home mom.
• age 27 → had my second baby. age 29 → became a foster mom.
• age 30 → returned to nursing part-time as a clinical instructor
• age 31 → became a single mom and called a hospital overnight practically begging for shifts because i knew they needed nurses during 2020 & got certified in integrative nutrition
• age 32 → picked up shifts in rheumatology and worked in geriatric medicine
• age 33 → started working in cosmetic surgery during the week and bartending on weekends to cover bills and my kids’ activities. lost 20 lbs in 8 weeks from the stress (not okay) → eventually left nursing to build my health coaching business while continuing to bartend to support myself
• age 35 → had the hard realization that the business i had poured so much into wasn’t going to support us financially the way i needed it to. applied to nurse practitioner school and went back to the hospital for more stability
• age 37 → here we are: still in school, still nursing, still learning, still growing.
lots of pivoting, messing up, & unlearning. Ive learned to be durable. fight frailty. do whatever it takes to train your brain toward gratitude, even when life doesn’t make it easy. speak up for yourself. move in ways that honor who you are. stay compassionate without abandoning your boundaries.
always find joy in the small things everyday. The alternative isn’t worth it 💙