When I was in 7th grade, my brother and his wife were about to have a baby; it was my mom's first grandchild. When my sister-in-law went into labor, my mom and I decided to take the 6-hour drive to be there to support them both.

When we got there, we met up with my sister-in-law's parents and my grandparents at the hospital. I was so excited to meet my nephew; I had been the youngest in my family for the last 13 years of my life and was excited not to hold that title any longer. After spending all night in the hospital, none of us wanted to leave the waiting room. We all sat there waiting in silence. We had been there all day, and her mom, who had previously worked as a nurse in the NICU, started to worry. She was pacing back and forth in the waiting room, not knowing if everything was going to be ok.

After another hour or so, the doctor came in to tell us what was going on. Everything was okay. The birth was traumatic. The baby seemed ok but had some things they wanted to keep an eye on. We couldn’t see them that night. We went back to get some sleep, excited to meet the addition to our family the next morning.

The next morning, we came to see them. My mom and I were the first people to meet him and to see his cute little face. It was amazing seeing all that was going on in the hospital, the nurse running around, the beeping sounds from all the machines, the doctors in their scrubs, and the general hustle and bustle of the whole space. It was intoxicating; I loved all the energy and the business of it.

Later, the nurses started to get worried that he wouldn't stop crying, and he had bruises around his head. The doctors decided to fly him to Seattle to run some tests. I don’t think I've ever been so scared.I spent three days watching the nurses come in and out, taking care of my nephew. I remember being so scared and thinking to myself how tiny this baby was, hooked up to all these wires. In the end, the baby was fine, and after this experience, I had an epiphany. This was the first time I really realized that I wanted to be a nurse, but even after that, I always had doubts if I was really cut out to do this.

Less than a year later, when I was 13, I was sent to the hospital for over two weeks. I was in the pediatric hospital and felt like all my freedom had been taken from me, no walking around, no access to talk to my friends. Although I was miserable the whole time. There was one thing I thought about. I've always been interested in a medical career, but I finally saw that I wanted to do PEDS. Nurses would make small talk, asking what I wanted to do in the future, and every time I brought up wanting to be a nurse, it would start a conversation about pediatric nursing, specifically NICU. Through all of this, I got to see pediatric nursing firsthand, and those doubts about whether I was really cut out for this slowly faded away. Now I know what I truly want to do with my life. I want to be a NICU nurse more than anything, and I am working every day to reach this goal.

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