So I did a thing . . .

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𝒪𝓃 8.3.2020, 𝐼 𝑔𝓇𝒶𝒹𝓊𝒶𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒶 𝑀𝒶𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓇’𝓈 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓉𝒽𝑒 #1 𝒩𝓊𝓇𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒮𝒸𝒽𝑜𝑜𝓁 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒰.𝒮.!

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I know I've been MIA the last couple of years, but as you can see it was for a great reason. From 2016 to 2017, while working my fulltime job in insurance at a hospital in Manhattan, I was also taking my prerequisites for nursing school. I received a contingency acceptance for a nursing school in Pennslyvania but didn't follow up -- I have no idea why. The following year, I applied to two nursing schools -- Yale and John Hopkins. While lying on my couch about to munch on a steamy Alien abduction book on my kindle, my intuition told me to check my email . . .

Before I even opened the email, I zoned in on that "Congratulations!" and freaked. It happened. My life was about to change. In a HUGE way. 

But I really had my heart set on Yale -- it was closer to home, I could commute and their program had the specialty I wanted to go into. So, I held out hope while being cautiously excited about my acceptance to Hopkins. As fate would have it, on Halloween and the day before I had to be in Baltimore to attend Accepted Students' Day for Hopkins, I received my rejection from Yale. Bummed (about the rejection from Yale) but also grateful (about the acceptance from Hopkins), this solidified my choice to attend Johns Hopkins. Fast forward a couple of months of resigning from my job and preparation for my move to Baltimore to January 2019 and I was starting nursing school at the number one nursing school in the United States; I had no idea of its ranking until I was sitting in the auditorium during Orientation wondering if I was making the right decision -- if you saw the number of zeros in my newly minted student debt balance you'd reconsider too.

But, I've spent my whole life knowing I'd have a career in medicine, so what was I waiting for? This was it. For next 19 months, I put everything I had into learning as much as one could during an accelerated nursing program with no previous nursing experience. 

It was ROUGH. And I've done HARD before, but this was in another dimension.

Nevertheless, I persisted. By the Grace of God.

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My time at Johns Hopkins was incredibly challenging and life-changing, and I couldn’t have done it without God and my nursing school besties. We have an amazing journey ahead of us, can’t wait to see us soar.

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Ashley B. Correa, AS, AS, BS, MSN👩🏾‍⚕️

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Take an abbreviated tour through my nursing school journey:

Thanks for being patient with me over the last few years. As my personal life shifts gears again, I hope to become more active on The Tattered Page.

Happy Reading!