UVM Nursing 2011 - Pinning Ceremony (student speech)
Good morning and welcome to the 2011 UVM nurse pinning ceremony.
I would like to start by addressing some of the people who have helped us get here today. The majority of you gathered here are family, friends, other loved ones, and of course our faculty. The last four years have been a long and heavy rollercoaster for all of us. Together we have shared successes, achievements, tears, and many hours of lost sleep. Not one of us can graduate tomorrow without taking a second to acknowledge all of you for supporting all of us. Thank you for your sacrifices. Please, join me in giving our loved ones and professors a round of applause.
Do any of you remember our toolbox? Three semesters ago our professor Stuart Whitney informed us that we all have the wonderful privilege of dragging a toolbox around with us everywhere we go. Back then; our toolbox was pretty much empty. We had only a few basic tools that we really hadn’t put into real life action. In the last four years we have been constantly asked to widen our perspectives, question our beliefs, stay true to our values, and define ourselves and our destiny.
Take a second to think about all the tools that we have added to our box in that process. You’d think it was pretty full, eh? No. Our toolbox is no where near the heaviest it will ever be, we have many more tools to add to it, but it is so much heavier than it was 3 semesters ago. Can you feel that weight? The journey we are about to embark on will no doubt provide us with more and more tools. We have so much to look forward to.
Now, I was looking back through my toolbox searching for insight on how to define the meaning of nursing. I can tell you what it means to be a nurse for me, but I’m not going to. We all have different reasons why we have decided to become nurses and subsequently, we are all going to have to define nursing in our own way. I can tell you that nursing is about passion and compassion.
Passion starts with that feeling of excitement that we all have right now and that we’ve all had for the last four years. It’s the intense desire that we have to help people. While we will all have different passions within nursing and within our lives, it’s where we choose to take those that really matter. And look at the examples our professors have set for us. Get any one of them talking about their favorite area of nursing and you will see passion. We have seen it a million times over and now it’s our opportunity to create that in our own lives and within ourselves.
Then there is compassion. We are blessed and highly privileged to be where we are today. We have chosen nursing. We now have the opportunity everyday to influence others in a positive way. People don’t go into hospitals because they are healthy and well. They go into hospitals specifically for the care that we will provide them. If we can give them the best care, always keeping in mind that our patients are people with lives, jobs, families, and problems like ourselves, our reward comes in showing them compassion. Plain and simple. We get so much out of what we give.
In our very first nursing course, The Art and Science of Nursing, a group created a film that ended with a message: “Together, we can make change.” Back then, the fact that one day we will have the chance to create change seemed so far off, but look at the things we have already accomplished within our time here at UVM. We have already left our handprints in Uganda, Bangledesh, Australia, Ecuador, Massachusetts, NH and all over Vermont. We’ve left our handprint here at UVM, with these professors, within this college. Some would say our chance to create change officially starts today, but we’ve been doing it all along.
It is now our opportunity to continue to embrace the change that we have been thrust into and use it as fuel for our future. There are no longer limits to what we can do. We will always have the tools that we have gained here at UVM in our toolbox. Now is the time to dream big and dare to fail. To ask questions. To be confident about your values and beliefs, and to live in the moment.
Today marks the greatest paradigm shift in our education. We have walked into this room as nursing students. We walk out today as nurses. How awesome is that? It is with determination and perseverance that we’ve made it here today. Our dream has finally become our reality. Congratulations, UVM nursing class of 2011. We’ve made it!
I would like to start by addressing some of the people who have helped us get here today. The majority of you gathered here are family, friends, other loved ones, and of course our faculty. The last four years have been a long and heavy rollercoaster for all of us. Together we have shared successes, achievements, tears, and many hours of lost sleep. Not one of us can graduate tomorrow without taking a second to acknowledge all of you for supporting all of us. Thank you for your sacrifices. Please, join me in giving our loved ones and professors a round of applause.
Do any of you remember our toolbox? Three semesters ago our professor Stuart Whitney informed us that we all have the wonderful privilege of dragging a toolbox around with us everywhere we go. Back then; our toolbox was pretty much empty. We had only a few basic tools that we really hadn’t put into real life action. In the last four years we have been constantly asked to widen our perspectives, question our beliefs, stay true to our values, and define ourselves and our destiny.
Take a second to think about all the tools that we have added to our box in that process. You’d think it was pretty full, eh? No. Our toolbox is no where near the heaviest it will ever be, we have many more tools to add to it, but it is so much heavier than it was 3 semesters ago. Can you feel that weight? The journey we are about to embark on will no doubt provide us with more and more tools. We have so much to look forward to.
Now, I was looking back through my toolbox searching for insight on how to define the meaning of nursing. I can tell you what it means to be a nurse for me, but I’m not going to. We all have different reasons why we have decided to become nurses and subsequently, we are all going to have to define nursing in our own way. I can tell you that nursing is about passion and compassion.
Passion starts with that feeling of excitement that we all have right now and that we’ve all had for the last four years. It’s the intense desire that we have to help people. While we will all have different passions within nursing and within our lives, it’s where we choose to take those that really matter. And look at the examples our professors have set for us. Get any one of them talking about their favorite area of nursing and you will see passion. We have seen it a million times over and now it’s our opportunity to create that in our own lives and within ourselves.
Then there is compassion. We are blessed and highly privileged to be where we are today. We have chosen nursing. We now have the opportunity everyday to influence others in a positive way. People don’t go into hospitals because they are healthy and well. They go into hospitals specifically for the care that we will provide them. If we can give them the best care, always keeping in mind that our patients are people with lives, jobs, families, and problems like ourselves, our reward comes in showing them compassion. Plain and simple. We get so much out of what we give.
In our very first nursing course, The Art and Science of Nursing, a group created a film that ended with a message: “Together, we can make change.” Back then, the fact that one day we will have the chance to create change seemed so far off, but look at the things we have already accomplished within our time here at UVM. We have already left our handprints in Uganda, Bangledesh, Australia, Ecuador, Massachusetts, NH and all over Vermont. We’ve left our handprint here at UVM, with these professors, within this college. Some would say our chance to create change officially starts today, but we’ve been doing it all along.
It is now our opportunity to continue to embrace the change that we have been thrust into and use it as fuel for our future. There are no longer limits to what we can do. We will always have the tools that we have gained here at UVM in our toolbox. Now is the time to dream big and dare to fail. To ask questions. To be confident about your values and beliefs, and to live in the moment.
Today marks the greatest paradigm shift in our education. We have walked into this room as nursing students. We walk out today as nurses. How awesome is that? It is with determination and perseverance that we’ve made it here today. Our dream has finally become our reality. Congratulations, UVM nursing class of 2011. We’ve made it!