nervous/career change
i have decided on a career change....there goes my "i will never work for someone again" mantra, goodbye self employment!
after an especailly slow summer, where i was lucky to have $50 leftover for gas and food after bills were paid (and i have very minimum bills: rent, car insurance, and utilities), i have decided i need a change. i hate the advertising world, even if i am in the photography side of it. i hate pissy art directorss, i hate clients low balling jobs, i hate working on photoshoots for products/ideas that i despise. i really, really hate that film is a foreign word, and everything is digital. i hate my lowering rates because everyone wants more, but they want it cheaper than before.
in high school, i worked in a vet hospital. my job was to clean kennels, walk the dogs, love the animals. one day, a vet assistant didn't show up...it was awesome. they pulled me in to cover for her that whole summer, until they could find a new one. i learned how to draw blood from the donor dogs, i assisted in surgeries....i LOVED it. at the time i wanted to be somewhere in the medical field, but i come from a shit-poor family, with an absent father who was unfortunately very wealthy, so there was no way i was getting any help to go to college, from family or grants and loans. for the next few years while assisting on photo shoots, i often daydreamed about being a surgical nurse. i still do. when my kids were born 6 1/2 weeks early, i crammed in every medical book i could to know as much as i could about their situation. i was explaining things to other moms in the NICU, and was often told by the pediatricians that i should be a nurse. recently i've been doing a lot of photography at a nearby hospital's neurological institute, in the OR. awesome. amazing. i love scrubbing in. i love being in there, with an open head on the table, soaking up whatever info i can- which is often given freely, as the neurosurgeon who we've been documenting performed my stepdads brain surgey 4 years ago, so we know each other pretty well already. last time i was there, he suggested to me that i go to nursing school.
so thats it, i've decided to go to nursing school.
and now the fear has set in. i don't know where to start. i don't know how to support my kids while i got to school. i know i need to call the university and talk to an advisor. i have the number. i'm afraid to call. i'm afraid of this change, which will be huge. tell me there are single mamas who went to school and supported their kids. can anyone give me the lowdown on what to expect for schooling? the university's website is pretty vague.
thanks mamas!
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies." - Nietzsche
I love nurses and often thought about going to school fo rit myself! Talk to an advisor, I am sure there is a lot of help for mama's who go to school. It will not be easy but the rewards in the end will be awesome! There are many hospitals in the area that will help pay for you to go to school if you agree to work for them for so many years. There is such a shortage of nurses right now that they will bend over backwards to help you out.
there are usually 2 and 4 year nursing programs. they are intense from what i hear but doable. at this point you should be able to get grants/loans. even if you can't get the free money everyone can get a stafford loan.and you only have to pay that back when you stop going to school and only $50 a month. if you get the maximum you could probably support your kids and not have to work but that depends on your award and your bills.i hope this works for you. i would look in to a tech school though because the degree will be cheaper by far than a university.what about the vet thing??
Jessica
What the caterpillar calls the end of the world; the master calls the butterfly~~Richard Bach
Jessica
Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind~~Dr.Seuss
but I think you'd be awesome at it. Big changes feel scary but you'll be so happy later!
Hi mama,
I'm not a single mama, but I am a photographer who has just gone back to school for a serious career change, too. So congrats to you for thinking about this big change, it is really scarry, but you are looking to the future for a better life, I think that is worth the sacrifices now. A close friend of mine JUST finished nursing school, she is making very good money and is SO happy and fuffilled. It IS a lot of work, but it seems to me any mama raising her kids and and working already knows about hard work--Plus I am sure there are grants out there for you, sometimes you can get grants/loans that you can live on, too. You should talk to the university and see who they have who can help you--you aren't the only or the first person to go back to school, they should be able to walk you through it! GOOD LUCK and how exciting!
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
ee cummings
Mummy's alright, Daddy's alright, they just seem a little weird...
My cousin/best friend is an RN, and she did it when her son was a toddler. You can too!
The requirements here are tricky, one of the only states that requires a 4 year degree. I BELIEVE it's a 2 year program in most other places. She took loads of classes online, had tons of financial aid, and was able to do it (just barely) without another full time job.
Talk to your advisor. I'll bet you'll be happily surprised at the help they can give you. There is a real shortage of nurses. Good for you for following your dream!
Oh, and PM Jubas! Isn't she in nursing school? I'll bet she could give you a TON of advice.
"Step off my big ass."
- Anthromom
good choice--I think in another life I would be a nurse, especially with the high demand. But it is grueling. all I can tell you is I went to school as a single mama, and it was fabulous. I basically got paid to go to school with grants and scholarships. Great campus (cheap) daycare, health services, gym, etc. I have lots of loan debt, but at low interest rate, and 20 yrs to pay it off. Just hit them up for all the resources you can, and talk to everyone you can, and look at all scholarship/grant stuff available. There's usually several different departments that handle this stuff, and don't really communicate with each other, so you have to be a pain in the butt and sleuth it out--it's worth it.
One of the women I went to school with for the last four years was a single mama. You can totally do it.
The first thing you need to do is apply for a pin so you can fill out an online FAFSA. Here are the websites:
Apply for a pin:
http://www.pin.ed.gov/PINWebApp/appinstr.jsp
After you get it, you can apply for financial aid. If you are applying for this year, you can do it now. If you are applying for next year (Starts September 2007), you should do it on January 1st.
http://www.fafsa.ed.gov
Get applications into the schools that you want to go to. You have to be accepted in order to get a statement from them which will outline how much money you will get. Your FAFSA will allow you to send the application out to every school you have applied to. After you fill it out, it will give you an EFC (Estimated Family Contribution). This is the amount you are expected to contribute to your Cost of Attendance. The cost of attendance is tuition+books+rent+food, etc... You can usually find it on the schools website, and so that will give you an idea of where you stand.
You can fill the FAFSA out for next year without your taxes, there is an option to estimate them and go and correct the amount later.
Good luck!! I am so glad you're going to pursue something you enjoy!!
"I am not dead yet! I can still call forth a piece of soul and set it down in color, fixed forever." Keri Hulme
"Fundamentally the markswoman aims at herself" DT Suzuki
of course if you moved here you could have DEPENDABLE childcare while you were in school 
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"Do not speak--unless it improves on silence." ~ buddhist saying
(wow - my email on file was so old - it was from the old hipmama email!)
Sounds like a great idea. Yay for you!
Congrats for taking a risk and following your passion! I have recently started the process of getting all my financial aid stuff put together and it is really amazing how much is out there for mamas, never mind single mamas. I am not single, hats off to you, but know there is a ton of grants out there. My aunt went to nursing school full-time with two toddlers 13 months apart and she loves it. I've done a lot of scholarship searching on www.fastweb.com and had some luck there. Also, do an online search for online nursing programs, the only drawback with those are they do not offer university childcare. I keep this quote on my fridge...kind of random, it came in a box of tea:
"If you have passion for what you do, the company you keep, the life you live, it will be reflected in whatever you create. Passion is like that; it springs out, jumps, unpredictable and unplanned, into every thing we touch. If it doesn't, others know. Passion can't be faked and it can't be manufactured. Which is why it is so priceless." ~unknown
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