1-Year Anniversary|| NCLEX

July 5th, 2013||
I woke up anxious knowing I had to wait an extra day to find out the results of my exam because of the holiday (thanks a lot United States!). I rolled over in my bed in the hotel and logged into the website...not to mention all my passwords were saved I don't know how many times from checking for results for the past 24 hours, and there it was I passed my NCLEX - RN exam, on the first time.  |see last years post here|

Fast forward, one year later, to July 5th 2014. Officially 6 months under my belt at my first post-graduation job at July 6th, and feeling fairly independent in my practice. Nursing is a strike of balance, balance on the job and off. It is a part of the career I didn't anticipate would hit me as hard as it has. The fast paced job during work and transitioning to home life and having any semblance of a life...well I'm not so good at. Also coming from a person that requires 8 hours of sleep every night doesn't help either.

Last year I had to take my exam up in Duluth which was okay with me, mostly because my family has spent many years up in Duluth for the July 4th celebrations. Having my exam up there on the 3rd just made for a good excuse that following my exam the remainder of my family met my mom and I for the remaining holiday weekend. This year I was lucky enough to have July 4th as my holiday off, so my parents and I went down to Red Wing, MN to get out of the city and break from routine. I appreciated the time with my parents, time away, and a bit of just quiet space from work & home life.  

 

 We arrived in Red Wing on Thursday, and spent the evening walking around downtown, and relaxing. The next morning we decided to take a hike up Barns Bluff that has a view over the Mississippi and the town of Red Wing, it was worth the climb. 

 

 

 

....apparently we took a trail that was "closed"...if you knew how much of a rule follower my mom was you'd understand why this photo is quite funny!

Of course, a delayed post, but decided it was worth it anyway. I find it important to celebrate the mile stones in life, no matter how big or small. As I posted a selfie when I was back at work on the 5th of July on instagram, "if only I knew then what I do now".  Keep in perspective the journey and where I've come from.

film in black & white [D.C. Ed.]

Black and white film speaks for itself, if you missed D.C. in color you can see the post from Tuesday {here}.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial

 

 

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

 

 

 

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

 

 

Korean War Memorial

Abraham Lincoln Monument/ Memorial

 

I won't forget.

As I sit  here and write this post I am listening to the live streaming of the memorial services at the New York City site at the world trade center reading of all the victims names by the surviving members of their family and friends. I wrote a post on the 10-year anniversary & now I sit here in the quiet of my room and say a prayer for the survivors and their families, the people that for our freedom in America today. I am thankful to be a citizen of a nation where I have freedom and people who work with serving hearts for the best of others.

These photos are taken from our family trip to the site of Flight 93 crash in the field in Stoystown, PA.
Excerpt from the National Parks website:

On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, the U.S. came under attack when four commercial airliners were hijacked and used to strike targets on the ground. Nearly 3,000 people tragically lost their lives. Because of the actions of the 40 passengers and crew aboard one of the planes, Flight 93, the attack on the U.S. Capitol was thwarted.

 

 

 

Point of impact marked with a boulder in the field, only family and loved ones have access to walk out to that sacred space.

 If you're ever in the area in Pennsylvania, this field is quiet, full of memory, and respect for those who passed serving this country and fighting against evil.

D. C. in 35mm

Dad, Mom, & Zach. (Lincoln Memorial)

Film. When was the last time I took pictures on film? Well, I don't remember. Before leaving on our trip my mom and I came across our trusty old Nikon camera with our fancy lenses, and we still had film that hadn't been used! So I decided to take it with us on our trip! In a time where the fanciest, coolest, digital cameras are always what people want to see on these good ol' blogs, I decided to try something different.

Here's our favorite film photos that I took during our time in the D.C. area.

 

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

 

Arlington National Cemetery 

Left to Right; Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, & the Nation's Capital - View from Arlington

50 Years.

Bronze Statue in the United States Capital - photo from my family's D.C. trip August 2013

"Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: - "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I haven't organized my photos or my reflections on the fabulous road trip that my family and I went on this month to Washington D.C. However, I couldn't see a time more appropriate to share my photos from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial than on the 50th anniversary of his famous and important speech at the March on Washington, "I have a Dream". I pray and hope that in the next 50 years and for future generations that people can continue to make progress and change in our culture that create equality and equity for all people no matter their race, ability, sexuality.

"The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice" 

Photo taken at the National Memorial of Martin Luther King Jr. - Aug 2013

Unfortunately, the memorial when we visited was still being completed and had 24 hours of construction workers to have it completed by today's 50th anniversary, so all of my photos of this memorial had scaffolding around and the mountain out of white stone that he is carved out of was not visible. It beautifully overlooks the tidal basin and is across from the Thomas Jefferson memorial who was one of the primary writers of the Declaration of Independence and the third President of the United States. Jefferson himself owned slaves and after visiting his home in Monticello, it became clear to me that arguably one of his biggest accomplishments but also a source of personal moral turmoil was his participation in owning slaves and running a plantation. In conjunction; how Jefferson held great personal regret of the mistreatment and inequality that non-white people received in this country through his lifetime, but near the end of his life stated, "this will be a problem for the future generations to solve". This burden that Thomas Jefferson had was carried to his grave. I pray and hope that our country in my lifetime can change and I can be apart of change towards equality for all, so I too don't have to carry that burden to my grave, part of that change is never forgetting the sacrifice and people that laid the pathway before me to be where I am in the world I am in today.

"Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress" 

   

home.

Post-Vacation/ Vacation brain is in full force, so if some of this seems like babble, it probably is, so bear with me. I am exhausted from the past twelve days of traveling and being a tourist in my own country, but it was entirely worth it. My parents have always done awesome road trips and this didn't disappoint. Only thing missing; my other brother (he had to work). If you already follow me on instagram {AJKram} then you have already seen all of these above photos in real-time, if not this is just a selection of crappy phone photos I took from almost everywhere we went between home out east to DC and back. Each photo has thoughts, feelings, and stories associated but it would be too hard to spell out in one post, so once I start to download all my favorite photos from the trip I will try to make a few posts of my trip to summarize it overall.

Side story; you may or may not know that our family vehicle is a Toyota Rav4, well if you can see in the bottom middle row we are packing into a 2012 white Toyota Prius because we made it all the way back to Madison, WI to our last hotel of our trip and our car died and needed major repair. So we got a loaner, not only that we drove that Prius home the next morning, which then the next day (today) my dad and I drove back to drop off the loaner and pick up our fixed car...I won't mention how much the repairs cost unfortunately. If anyone does a lot of driving and even kinda was considering a hybrid, take my word, they are worth exploring and seriously considering it will save you A LOT on gas.

Well, because all good breaks have to come to an end I have an ever-mounting to-do list. I just wanted to write-in and let you know I'm alive and well, just a bit busy that's why there hasn't been any posts recently. My apologies.

Thank goodness it's almost the weekend!
:-)

 

Heading East;

Washington D.C. here I come!!

Any suggestions on places to see or go eat?! Leave in comments - I have been to DC twice before, but on this trip my family and I have a lot more time and I am now older so hoping to see and get to more things this time around.

Update 08-15-2013
Obviously updating my blog is too much for me on this vacation, in addition to returning some phone calls (both of which I feel guilty about). One I can remedy, follow me on instagram AJKram and you'll probably find some very toursity typical photos of DC and other road trip things along the way.

Enjoy! 

GSJ// Zambia - One for the history books

Final Reflections - Zambia

Official grade posted to the registrar's office, the course is complete. I will have memories to last a lifetime. This will now be my last post on my January 2013 trip to a new continent, and country that I now hold a special place for in my heart. My hope that this is just one of many trips that I have to places far and wide. This trip provided an opportunity to grow personally and have a deeper and fuller understanding of the world and the people in it.

 

During my first week in Lusaka, I had the opportunity to volunteer and spend time at the Maluba House where I met some very strong women, and a strong girl fighting for her life. They recently lost funding for the adult wing of the hospice and only had a clinic and hospice home for children up and running. Unfortunately while I was there only one child was using the hospice home, it was between busy times for some reason. I was touched by the hard work and resilience that the women had that were working to provide care in this facility and how much love they had for the people of Zambia, many whom have been struck with AIDS/ HIV. The most significant relationship I made was with Hari a volunteer medical administrator from India who committed to a 2-year contract to work as the primary medical administrator for this site. I hope we will be able to reconnect at some point again.

   

(Left: Hari & I; Right: one of the rooms at the Maluba House - girls wing)

 

Another touching experience we had was visiting the organization Chikumbuso visit their facebook page here, and their website here. 

 

 

  

For some reason blogger is not letting me upload a video which makes me really sad, because these women sung for us between a few of them telling their journey and story in relation to Chikumbuso. It was beautiful. The organization is beautiful, and I'm glad that these women have found hope in a future, community to depend on, and a place that is safe for the children to go to school and get one solid meal a day. I encourage you to visit their website and see more of what they are all about, and you can purchase their hand-crafted products state side or donate to their organization. 

There are many more stories to tell, and things I learned from this trip even now two months later that I can reflect on, but none that can be totally articulated through this blog. I am blessed and thankful for the opportunity to travel and spend time there, and next time I go abroad; I will be very happy it will not be for class!