2012: The Year of Travels. (perhaps?)

Upon each new year I like to make a goal. Not so much a "resolution", per se, but a piece of myself that I would like to improve upon. A little over a year ago, after a major break up, I reevaluated what was important in my life and decided that 2011 would be my year of friendship and hobbies. 2011 was an incredible year. It was in this year that I discovered my love for my three favorite hobbies: hot vinyasa yoga, rock climbing, and pole dancing. It was also in this year that I spent almost every free moment of my life cherishing the friends that were neglected during the "relationship years." I even went above and beyond my comfort zone and met a whole new group of cohorts by entering the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation as a bachelorette. Not only did that experience expose me to new pools of people, but it also humbled me on many occasions. I raised over $3,000 for cystic fibrosis research from the support of my friends alone. Those are some ridiculously generous and insanely awesome friends!!! (Thanks again to everyone who supported me. Your generosity means more to me than you will ever know..) Long story short, I more than accomplished my goals for 2011 and I truly hope that 2012 will be no different.

I have always wanted to travel, but I have also always been too practical to involve myself in such irrational voyages. While in college my mom would often suggest that I study abroad, but every time she would bring up the idea I would immediately turn the offer down. It wasn't that I didn't want to see new places,  I was just in a huge hurry to finish college and "start my life already".Why would I want to push back graduation another semester when I could take 18 credits each semester and graduate from nursing school early? Looking back, I really wish I would have taken the time to spend a semester in a different country, but such is life. 

Since I missed the "study abroad" boat, I think 2012 may be as good of a year as any to make up for lost adventures. Every trip I take to Florida always makes me say to myself, "dang, the hot sun feels amazing.. why do I still live in Indy again?" Don't get me wrong, I love this city, I like my job, and I am crazy about my friends, but I also think it may be time for me to get a taste of different places. An appetizer sampler of the United States, if you will. This is where the travel goal of 2012 comes into play.. I think this year may be the year that I try my hand at travel nursing. 

I still need to do more research and work out the details, but so far travel nursing looks very appealing. You choose where you would like to go, say Florida for example, and once you land a job, the nursing agency will pay for your rent, pay for your moving expenses, AND you get paid almost twice as much as a "normal nurse" for the same work. PROS: Money! And a chance to travel the U.S. on someone else's dime. CONS: You're probably going to be working in the places where no one else wants to work.. So that's why they hire travel nurses.. Also, your co-workers are probably going to hate you because you make more than they do... And you are going to know no one and have no friends. 

Now, being an independent woman, the cons do not scare me too much. I moved to Indiana 7 years ago with absolutely no friends or family in the whole entire state. If I can survive that, I can survive a 3 month travel assignment to a hateful ICU in a tropical climate. Bring it on hateful nurses and crappy hospitals... Bring. It. On. As long as I am warm and making bank I could care less about anything else that goes on around me. (I may come to regret this last statement later on..) 

Anyways, absolutely nothing is set in stone as far as travel nursing goes and I have not agreed to anything, yet. (READ: I AM NOT QUITTING MY CURRENT JOB.) However, travel nurse or not, I am determined to make 2012 the most travelicious year ever. (Wow, that sounded really dumb.. whatever, I'm keeping it in there..)

Side note: this RN is in BLUE AND WHITE SCRUBS...  Just sayin'.... (see "Anonymous Health" post for the significance of this..)