Everyone knows that to be successful in life you need to be educated, but sometimes education goes beyond the classroom. The environment in a classroom can be recognized around the world, when people think of classrooms they typically think of young students sitting in a room diligently working on a paper that their teacher had assigned to them. My mother was lucky enough to be apart of this environment when she came to America, it was here where she learned the same generic information that everyone else learned such as how to multiply and divide fractions or how millions of people died during the Black Plague. Neither math, history, or any other subject sparked her interest.What she was really interested in was not offered at school, she found her interest at home where her family needed her.
Significance of a Stethoscope:
When I was younger I found a stethoscope laying around in some boxes I was looking through, so I asked my mom what it was. She then went on and explained to me the story of her in nursing school, then leaving because she had to be with her family. I had no idea that she was even considering to be a nurse before she was pregnant with me, I thought that my father had just picked her up and whisked her away to never work. Along with her telling me about her previous interests she proceeded to tell me of her mother’s story, my grandmother. Then and there I knew this little contraption was more than just an aid to listen to a heart beat, this stethoscope symbolized the goals that my mother was never able to reach. It is funny how fitting a tool that literally touches hearts everyday, is so close to my heart and my mother’s heart.
My Inspiration:
My mother is a very hard working, honest, and caring woman. At first glance she seems like an ordinary cute little mom, a five-foot woman emitting energy and care for her family. Never missing a soccer game, always attending her children’s school activities, she is like a modern day wonderwoman. Behind the dedication to her family, before she had me at age twenty-one and my brother at age twenty-seven, she had dreams of her own. The story can begin as far back as middle school for my mother, when she met my father. Their love bloomed and remained strong to this day, so twenty-one years. He always wanted to take care of my mother, he would do anything for her and wanted to give her the world, but even so, everyone has aspirations. My mother aspired to become a nurse. She always possessed a natural sense of taking care of people with her kind-hearted personality. She was meant to be a nurse, she had all the qualities of a nurse just like the first known nurse who, Phoebe, who is mentioned in the bible. She was recognized in the early years of the Christian Church in Rome.
Coming To America:
In 1993 after high school, when my mother and father were already madly in love, my mom attended nursing school and was on her last stretch and final year, but that all came to a halt with her pregnancy of me. She only had one more semester to go be a registered nurse, her dream. This dream of hers first appeared when she realized she wanted to help people on a medical level, her mother, my grandmother helped her realize this. Before my grandmother and my mother moved to America they had a completely different life, in Mexico my grandma was married to a horrible man who had no respect for her. Her marriage was not by choice and neither were her pregnancies, when my grandmother and grandfather met back in 1968 only one was interested in the other. My grandfather was bewitched by my grandmother and my grandmother had no interest in him. She knew he was a terrible man, when my grandfather rejected her he went up to my grandmothers house and told her parents a horrible lie. He told them that had a sexual altercation and back in the day when people had those kind of altercations they were forced to marry one another. My grandmother had no say in this, she was forced to marry a man she did not love. Not only did she not love him but she was physically abused by him, this went on for 20 years. From 1968-1988 my grandmother lived a life of abused and torture and my mother saw it all, she saw her mother filled with bumps and bruises and she had no idea on how to help her heal from her wounds.
When my grandma finally developed a plan to escape from my grandfather's rath, in 1988 my grandma hired a coyote took all 5 of her kids to America. When she made it to San Jose she moved in with her sister she quickly went to work at a restaurant, she is a fantastic cook. While she worked at the restaurant she noticed that at lunch time a group of construction workers came in every single day. One the man's name was Roberto Rodriguez who was a young intelligent man who had a great heart and a big stomach, he especially took a liking in my grandmother’s food. While eating his food on a particular day he decided that he wanted to meet the cook, my grandma was ecstatic that someone enjoyed her food that much. When she went out to meet her satisfied customer she noticed that he was a handsome man, she immediately blushed and nerves surged through her body. She approached him to thank him for his interest in her food but he soon made it obvious that his interest was not only in her food, and from there their love flourished and they were married 3 months later and to this day they are still happily married.
Not So Happy Ending:
Their marriage wasn’t always a pleasant one though, my step-grandfather went through a stage in his life where he was an alcoholic and it took its toll on his marriage and his relationship with my grandmothers children, including my mother. This went on for 10 years, in 2011 right when my grandma was preparing to leave my step-grandfather, he had a terrible stroke that caused his memory to be lost, he did not remember who I was or who any of his family were. He thought he was back in Mexico working on his little farm. My grandmother, being the angel that she is, didn’t have the heart to leave him in this state. So she took care of him as best as she could but my step-grandfather needed a nurse. When my grandmother hired a nurse to watch over my step-grandfather it helped him tremendously, his shots were given and she helped him remember where and who he was with daily and over time he remembered everything but one thing, he forgot that he ever picked up an alcoholic beverage. He was free from his alcoholism and once again my his and my grandmother’s love flourish, it was a beautiful and inspirational thing to watch.
Seeing that nurse help my step-grandfather over the years confirmed that I wanted to be a nurse when I was older but not only did she inspire me but so did my mother. Forced to drop out of nursing school, my mother sacrificed her dream for me, so I feel like it is prominent that I fulfill this dream for her. I want to make her proud and I want to be able to help people on both a medical and personal level just like that nurse did for my step-grandfather many years ago. My family is full of good hearted people who all aspire to help other people but no one ever had the opportunity to do anything with that aspiration, I want to be the one in my family to fulfil everyone’s dream and help others for a living. Just like my mother I will go to nursing school after my time here at CSUN and I will finish my time at nursing school to be a certified registered nurse. From there I will further my education and take the CEN test to become an emergency room nurse for those in desperate need of my help and the help of the other nurses at the hospital. An average emergency room nurse sees minimum 65,000 patients a year and because of this and my drive to complete my mother’s dream I can oversee the rigorous hours I will have to endure which can range from 8 to 12 hour shifts a night by knowing I will be saving lives like my mother would have liked to do. Like other nurses, I will have a stethoscope, like the one I found in my mothers box many years ago. Derived from this stethoscope are three stories, all related, and all significant in my life and future in becoming a certified emergency nurse.
When I was younger I found a stethoscope laying around in some boxes I was looking through, so I asked my mom what it was. She then went on and explained to me the story of her in nursing school, then leaving because she had to be with her family. I had no idea that she was even considering to be a nurse before she was pregnant with me, I thought that my father had just picked her up and whisked her away to never work. Along with her telling me about her previous interests she proceeded to tell me of her mother’s story, my grandmother. Then and there I knew this little contraption was more than just an aid to listen to a heart beat, this stethoscope symbolized the goals that my mother was never able to reach. It is funny how fitting a tool that literally touches hearts everyday, is so close to my heart and my mother’s heart.
My Inspiration:
My mother is a very hard working, honest, and caring woman. At first glance she seems like an ordinary cute little mom, a five-foot woman emitting energy and care for her family. Never missing a soccer game, always attending her children’s school activities, she is like a modern day wonderwoman. Behind the dedication to her family, before she had me at age twenty-one and my brother at age twenty-seven, she had dreams of her own. The story can begin as far back as middle school for my mother, when she met my father. Their love bloomed and remained strong to this day, so twenty-one years. He always wanted to take care of my mother, he would do anything for her and wanted to give her the world, but even so, everyone has aspirations. My mother aspired to become a nurse. She always possessed a natural sense of taking care of people with her kind-hearted personality. She was meant to be a nurse, she had all the qualities of a nurse just like the first known nurse who, Phoebe, who is mentioned in the bible. She was recognized in the early years of the Christian Church in Rome.
Coming To America:
In 1993 after high school, when my mother and father were already madly in love, my mom attended nursing school and was on her last stretch and final year, but that all came to a halt with her pregnancy of me. She only had one more semester to go be a registered nurse, her dream. This dream of hers first appeared when she realized she wanted to help people on a medical level, her mother, my grandmother helped her realize this. Before my grandmother and my mother moved to America they had a completely different life, in Mexico my grandma was married to a horrible man who had no respect for her. Her marriage was not by choice and neither were her pregnancies, when my grandmother and grandfather met back in 1968 only one was interested in the other. My grandfather was bewitched by my grandmother and my grandmother had no interest in him. She knew he was a terrible man, when my grandfather rejected her he went up to my grandmothers house and told her parents a horrible lie. He told them that had a sexual altercation and back in the day when people had those kind of altercations they were forced to marry one another. My grandmother had no say in this, she was forced to marry a man she did not love. Not only did she not love him but she was physically abused by him, this went on for 20 years. From 1968-1988 my grandmother lived a life of abused and torture and my mother saw it all, she saw her mother filled with bumps and bruises and she had no idea on how to help her heal from her wounds.
When my grandma finally developed a plan to escape from my grandfather's rath, in 1988 my grandma hired a coyote took all 5 of her kids to America. When she made it to San Jose she moved in with her sister she quickly went to work at a restaurant, she is a fantastic cook. While she worked at the restaurant she noticed that at lunch time a group of construction workers came in every single day. One the man's name was Roberto Rodriguez who was a young intelligent man who had a great heart and a big stomach, he especially took a liking in my grandmother’s food. While eating his food on a particular day he decided that he wanted to meet the cook, my grandma was ecstatic that someone enjoyed her food that much. When she went out to meet her satisfied customer she noticed that he was a handsome man, she immediately blushed and nerves surged through her body. She approached him to thank him for his interest in her food but he soon made it obvious that his interest was not only in her food, and from there their love flourished and they were married 3 months later and to this day they are still happily married.
Not So Happy Ending:
Their marriage wasn’t always a pleasant one though, my step-grandfather went through a stage in his life where he was an alcoholic and it took its toll on his marriage and his relationship with my grandmothers children, including my mother. This went on for 10 years, in 2011 right when my grandma was preparing to leave my step-grandfather, he had a terrible stroke that caused his memory to be lost, he did not remember who I was or who any of his family were. He thought he was back in Mexico working on his little farm. My grandmother, being the angel that she is, didn’t have the heart to leave him in this state. So she took care of him as best as she could but my step-grandfather needed a nurse. When my grandmother hired a nurse to watch over my step-grandfather it helped him tremendously, his shots were given and she helped him remember where and who he was with daily and over time he remembered everything but one thing, he forgot that he ever picked up an alcoholic beverage. He was free from his alcoholism and once again my his and my grandmother’s love flourish, it was a beautiful and inspirational thing to watch.
Seeing that nurse help my step-grandfather over the years confirmed that I wanted to be a nurse when I was older but not only did she inspire me but so did my mother. Forced to drop out of nursing school, my mother sacrificed her dream for me, so I feel like it is prominent that I fulfill this dream for her. I want to make her proud and I want to be able to help people on both a medical and personal level just like that nurse did for my step-grandfather many years ago. My family is full of good hearted people who all aspire to help other people but no one ever had the opportunity to do anything with that aspiration, I want to be the one in my family to fulfil everyone’s dream and help others for a living. Just like my mother I will go to nursing school after my time here at CSUN and I will finish my time at nursing school to be a certified registered nurse. From there I will further my education and take the CEN test to become an emergency room nurse for those in desperate need of my help and the help of the other nurses at the hospital. An average emergency room nurse sees minimum 65,000 patients a year and because of this and my drive to complete my mother’s dream I can oversee the rigorous hours I will have to endure which can range from 8 to 12 hour shifts a night by knowing I will be saving lives like my mother would have liked to do. Like other nurses, I will have a stethoscope, like the one I found in my mothers box many years ago. Derived from this stethoscope are three stories, all related, and all significant in my life and future in becoming a certified emergency nurse.
Cynthia Sanchez is currently on the girls soccer team here at CSUN and enjoys reading.