Go for your dreams

My wonderful wife, Stephanie, went back to school this week.

She’s been taking pre-nursing courses (anatomy, physiology, microbiology) one at a time for a while now and doing very, very well. But at some point we knew that she would have to quit her job. We both work in publishing and we are paid well, but job security in our industry is pretty much non-existent.

I decided to try writing novels in my spare time. Stephanie wanted to be a nurse trained to deliver anesthesia. 

So Stephanie started school full time this week, taking courses that she will need to apply to nursing anesthesia school (CNRA) a few years from now — after she’s completed her RN training and then worked a year in an hospital’s intensive care unit. Then the anesthesia training is another three years.

The finish line is far in the distance — seven or eight years from today — but the reward will be worth it. Nurse anesthesists are always in demand and they are paid very, very well.

We could have found any number of excuses to not chase our dreams. (1) We’re both over the age of 40. (2) Unsuccessful authors far outnumber successful ones. (3) Admission to nursing anesthesis schools is extremely competitive and will require me and my wife to live apart while she completes her education.

But we’re both up for the journey. We know it’s going to take a while but success isn’t be achieved overnight. We also know that we’ll never reach the finish line until we take the first step … so here we go.