My friend Jenni just got a new nursing job at a city doctor’s office . She’s older than usual for starting a career–in her forties. But after working for years as a copywriter , she was fed up with copywriting and wanted to get into a career that would allow her to work more directly with people. She didn’t feel like her career was related to what she really cared about in life , and would much rather be involved in individual lives, making them better than selling things she doesn’t care about. She’d considered majoring in pre-med in college , but had chosen an English major rather. Now she’s gone back and switched majors , in a sense, a couple decades afterwards. I applaud her courage to quit a career that she knows and has succeeded at to enter into the unknown. I’m not sure I’d have the courage to go back to school now.

In celebration, I and a few other friends are throwing Jenni a party. We’re going to decorate my house as if for a commencement party. Jenni doesn’t know about it. We’ll have a big elaborate graduation cake for her, as well as getting a diploma professionally printed. It’ll show that she has graduated to the next step in her journey. We’ve also been collecting a whole lot of examples of ads and other copywriting she’s done and are going to burn them in the yard . We’ve combined our gifts and bought Jenni a few things from this store (their retail branch) and put them together as our own gift bundle, including some Peaches scrubs and Jobst socks. We also bought her some introductory nursing equipment–a stethescope, blood pressure cuff, reflex hammer, etc.

I hope Jenni loves her new life . I know she was miserable at the last firm . Knowing what a protective, hard-workingperson she is, I think she’ll be an amzing nurse . I know that the next time I feel seriously sick , I’d like to have her watching over me.