Story 4

A Young Florence Nightingale 

How many little girls confidently declare when three or four years old that when grown up they’ll be a princess? A ballerina? If you would have asked a young Nicole Willms what she wanted to be, she would have put down her pretend nursing kits and bandages and told you - a nurse. Currently in the nursing degree program at Anoka-Ramsey, Nicole juggles the full life of employee at a cardiology office, student, and mother to a 2 and a 1/2 and 7 year old. Inspired by her own mother, a nurse for over 30 years and who served overseas in the Navy, Willms knows that all the “slaving over readings or studying for an exam” will benefit her family in the future. The benefit of future patients also drives Willms: “I see how [my mother] was with her patients and how much they respected her and I knew this is something I needed to be. I wanted to be that person that could help prolong a person’s life.” 

The caring profession continues. Willms bought her own daughter a nursing kit for Christmas last year, and now there seems to be in-house practitioner competition. “She takes care of mommy, daddy, and brother along with the puppy and all her stuffed animals.” 

When Willms isn’t studying, working, or mommy-ing, she would prefer a night in, getting “to relax and not having to worry,” or she would be playing on one of her three softball teams. 

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Interview Transcript

Hi Nicole. Here's a few interview questions for you.

Since it's a bit harder conducting an interview not in person, I tried

to include all manner of questions based around your blog profile.

Thank you!

Erin W.

1. So, you're going to school for your RN degree. Where exactly? What

made you want to get in to the medical field? Did you always know you

wanted to? What was the path that led you there? Where would you like

to eventually work: a large hospital, small clinic, with children...?

2. What is the most rewarding part to your current workplace? The most

challenging?

3. Do your two kids ever play pretend doctor or nurse like their mom?

4. Being a mom looks like it's also a large part of your life. Do you

have any funny stories about being a mom to two little ones?

5. If you could have one night free from schoolwork, watching kids'

movies, doing dishes etc...what would you do to unwind?

6. You mention softball and camping on your profile, are you a big

outdoors person? Do you play on a softball league? What is the most

exoctic/exciting place you've traveled? Where would you like to go?

7. Have you been to any country concerts recently? Anyone coming

through that you would like to see?

8. Between school, kids, work, how do you balance your busy life?

I am going to Anoka Ramsey for my nursing degree. I have always wanted to be a nurse growing up. I always had the pretend nursing kits and would walk around and put bandages on everyone and everything to make sure they would heel! I believe my mom played a huge role in influencing me to be a nurse. She has been a nurse for 30 some years now. She started nursing while she was surving over seas in the Navy. She is a wonderful women and a nurse. I see how she was with her patient and how much they respected her and I knew this is something I needed to be. I wanted to be that person that could help prolong a person's life. It gives me much graditude knowing that I helped a person. Currently I am working in a cardiology office but when I am done with school I would love to move into either a clinic or hospital and help take care of children! Its hard being a mom, working full time and going to school full time but in the end I know that its going to beneift my family and make things better. so I try and keep that aspect in the back of my head as I am salving over readings or studying for an exam. There are days when I feel horrible because I am not spedning as much time with them as I should but I know if they were older they would understand. yes my little 2 1/2 loves playing Dr/nurse.. I bought her a nursing kit last year for Christmas and she loves it. she takes care of mommy, daddy and brother along with the puppy and all her stuffed animals. Having kids there is never a dull moment!! its hard to think of something funny when so maany things have occured. lets just say there is never a dull moment and we are always kept on our toes!!

If I had a free night, no kids, no homework. I would love to just stay at home have a few drinks and just lounge. it sounds boring but its nice to be able to jsut relax and not having to worry about getting up because someone needs something or spilled something!

I do love the outdoors. we have a camper and goign camping a lot during the summer. we do not go to far yet because the kids are still a little to little but hopefully soon we will make our adventures out farther. I love playing sports, softball especailly. I have played since I was little. right now I play on 3 teams and its nice to get out and do something I love. It makes it a little easier since our friends are on the team and we all have kids, so they come and run around with eachother while the adults play ball.

please let me know if u need anymore info!

thanks

Nicole!

Story 3

The Sleep Doctor is In

Diana Gant, a psychology professor at Anoka Ramsey, knows the importance of beauty sleep. Actually, just sleep in general. Gant has made a career out of studying the sleepy, both her graduate thesis and doctoral dissertation on the lack of and need for more sleep. When she began her studies 17 years ago, Gant intended to study productivity in people who received little amounts of sleep, but when her subjects were presented with the “chance to sleep in dark, quiet rooms, they all slept for about nine hours.” This early observation and “other work convinced me that most people suffer from sleep deprivation.” 

Nine to ten hours, Gant claims, is the optimal amount of nightly sleep, while most people average seven hours. Gant's research is based on both personal research and studying statistics, such as the correlation between traffic accidents around daylight savings time in both the spring (loose an hour) and fall (gain an hour). Statistics show an 8% increase in accidents the day after spring daylight savings, which Gant likens to national jet lag, its effects lasting up to a week as the body’s biological clock resets. 

How can you tell if you’re sleep deprived? Perform this simple test: do you feel sleepy or desire to doze off after eating a large lunch? Being sleepy at your desk is considerably less hazardous, but Gant attributes sleep deprivation with severities such as the space shuttle Challenger disaster, Russia’s Chernobyl reactor accident, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Regarding the spill, Gant asserts that “the press focused on the possibility that the captain of the Exxon Valdez was drunk, but undershifting and long shifts on the ship may have led to the third mate’s falling asleep at the wheel.” Cutting back on sleep can also cause depression, falling asleep at stoplights, and has the same effects on a person as being drunk, making people “clumsy, stupid, and unhappy.” 

To counteract sleep deprivation, Gant prescribes several things. Find a place that is dark and quiet, lights off and shades drawn. Get a confortable bed and keep bed linens fresh and clean. A cool atmosphere, about 65, is optimal sleeping temperature. Equally important as getting more sleep in general and sleeping conditions is preparing for sleep. “It’s good to relax for an hour or so before going to bed,” Gant says, prescribing watching TV or reading a book. Pre-sleep diet also contributes; “don’t eat or drink a lot” and avoid tobacco, coffee, alcohol, or excessive sugars as these cause the brain to become more alert as their effects wear off. If we all followed this regiment, Gant may be out of a job. 

Story #2

County votes 5-2 denying law enforcement funds

Thursday night’s county commission meeting was the setting for a heated debate between County Sheriff Gus DiCesari and the commission members, led by Commission President Anne Chenn. DiCesari pressed the county for additional law enforcement funds to be used to replace eight police cruisers, each of which accumulated more than 150,000 miles and that DiCesari claims are becoming “too costly to maintain...and they spend more time in the repair shop.” Additional law enforcement funds would also be used to hire five sheriff’s deputies. 

DiCesari was backed by commission members Anita Shenuski and Raymond Laybourne, who suggested during the meeting that the county spend money on the sherrif’s department and less on programs for county migrant workers. Shenuski and Laybourne claim that funds would be better spent protecting “local residents.” Chenn and Commissioners Valerie Dawkins, Faith Ellis, Jose Gardoz and Roland Grauman strongly advocated for the some 5,000 migrant families in the community, highlighting the fact that many migrant workers have “become permanent members of the community.” 

DiCesari claims that in his 27 years as sheriff, this is the first time the department has been without an equipment budget. Cenn claims the county is without the $580,000 needed to replace the police cruisers and to hire new deputies and that the sheriff’s department will simply have to make due this year. “My deputies can’t keep driving these old vehicles,” DiCesari claims, “Something bad is going to happen.” Chenn suggested that deputies not drive their cruisers home each day as is the current practice and thus save milage and make more cars available, even though cruisers parked around neighborhoods is a crime deterrant. 

A vote was held and the commission voted 5-2 against the request for additional law enforcement funds. 

Story #1

Think your work day started off grimly? Well, as long as you were not involved in the crash this morning on Interstate 790, your day was probably okay. At 6:45am, two northbound tractor trailers collided, beginning a chain reaction crash that ultimately included four tractor trailers and 14 cars, several injuries, and fatalities. 

The mechanical mess was so great and chaotic that police officers on the scene had trouble identifying passengers and drivers with their cars, according to Police Sgt. Albert Wei. 

“When I arrived,” says Fire Chief Tony Sullivan, “it looked like a war zone with bodies laying along the road, people covered with blood next to their cars, emergency workers running from place to place trying to help the injured, and sirens wailing in the distance.” Firemen had to actually cut the roofs off of three cars in order to reach the passengers inside. The city’s total number of ambulances were deployed to the scene, and back up was called from four nearby cities. The crash, says Sullivan, had a total of two fatalities both belonging to car drivers. Twenty others were injured, four seriously. Two of the worst injuries were air-lifted to the trauma center in Statesville. “In the 18 and a half years I’ve been with the fire department,” says Sullivan, “I’ve never seen anything that bad.”

The multi-vehicle crash has completely close Interstate 790, and traffic has been rerouted to Interstate 690. As of 10am this morning, traffic on the east side of the city was still backed up as it had been for three hours and without an idea of when it will reopen, according to Wei.  

Summary #1

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2010-08-25-maya-pompeii_N.htm?csp=hf

New archeological discoveries lead to theories as to why the ancient Mayans left their homes of 1,900 or more years in great haste. Everyday items, such as pottery, found in the Mayan city, Kiuic, point to unplanned retreat. Possible causes include warfare or draught.  

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Other thoughts:

My youngest brother is leaving tomorrow morning for basic training with the National Guard. I'm acutally dropping him off in an hour or so, and he'll be gone until Christmas for a two-week visit, then off again. He'll be training in both South Carolina and Virginia for the next six months. The military told him not to pack many things; they issue most everything he will need. But I got home tonight and all he has packed is one rather small black backpack. Somehow, in that one bag he's taking everything he needs for the next six months. I can't fathom this. Perhaps it's my personality; I know I'm not a hoarder, but maybe I have an exaggerated sense of the essential. Maybe traveling light is a guy thing.

I don't know exactly what he has in there other than simple toiletry items, an ipod, some envelopes, stamps, and writing materials...

I know I'd want pictures, a book (how I'd choose, I don't know), a Bible, markers of my personality, items that would remind and anchor me amidst life-upheaval. But if I were like the Mayans, or my brothers, having to choose singular items to survive on, I can't think of a harder choice. Granted, the Mayans didn't know when they'd return, and my brother at least has some idea of returning to civilization, but what would you bring? What is your anchor?

The questions themselves...

Does it make me odd that I have always loved writing, having a favorite type of pen (the Pilot G-2), being affectionately labeled a grammar nerd, yet I have always been extremely nervous about having others read my writing? So why in the world am I writing a blog? Let me attempt to answer...

When I was a writing undergrad (go ahead and scoff and ask me what I intended to do with that), before I found my calling to be a teacher, I clearly remember two points when I realized that I would never write as a profession. The first was when my brother told me that I wasn't screwed up enough to be a real writer. He truly said this jokingly, but it haunted me. I found myself near wishing for something tragic to happen just so I could have something to write about. My poems seemed trite. Forced short stories. It took me a long time to realize that my life was already made of tragic pieces...still is...nothing grand or historic, but I lived/live a flawed life nonetheless.

The second harsh awakening came while I read Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet for the first time. I often return to this slim volume of wisdom for creative refreshment and as a reminder of why I love writing, when I know it in the deepest parts of myself, but I can't voice why. When I can't write why:
"Search for the reason that bids you write: find out whether it is spreading out its roots in the deepest places of your heart, acknowledge to yourself whether you would have to die if it were denied you to write. This above all - ask yourself in the stillest hour of the night: must I write?" I found that I could not equate death with being denied writing. At the time, that was a small death for me: to realize that I would not be a writer. What was I going to do with my major now? It was too late to switch, and I honestly couldn't think of something I enjoyed more. But Rilke also reminds me:
"...to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to live the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now." I still struggle with this lesson in contentment. But I cherish it.

Sometimes, words are not enough to express life. Authors and artists try, sometimes convincingly and authentically, but I don't know if it always possible. This meager blog is being required of me by a journalism class, yes, but through it, I will at least pretend to be the screwed-up writer that I used to think I couldn't be. I also hope that through it I can attempt to write and to live some of the questions.