Okay, several months ago I decided that I needed to go back to school for my MSN to further my career. Attending school Friday evening, all day Saturday and part of a day on Sunday every other weekend didn’t sound so bad when I first heard it. I should have known there was a catch. I’ve read something like 1000 pages in the past two weeks, written two assignments and taken one test. The next one comes tomorrow by e-mail and I’ll have until Wednesday morning to complete it. Now, if you’ve ever taken a “take home” test, you already know that it’s not going to be a simple select the right answer and move on, do it in 30 minutes kind of thing. I forsee hours of digging through the text to find an obscure piece of information that is critical to the answer. And, it won’t be regurgitation, either. It’ll be those wonderful synthesis questions that require you to create new information from a lot of little clues.

My significant other, I’m sure, will be happy 15 months from now when this is over. I’m not exactly the nicest guy to be around when I’m feeling stressed. Does a bull in a china shop have a familiar ring? Or, perhaps, I was just a bear — and not the cute little cuddly kind, either. Well, maybe with the extra load of reading to catch up with the first week’s work, and trying to get ahead of the second week now behind me, I’ll settle down. But more than once in the past two weeks I’ve questioned my sanity. And remember, I may one day be providing your nursing care ….