{"id":27,"date":"2014-06-18T15:17:51","date_gmt":"2014-06-18T15:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geddesproduction.com\/Kittie-Blog\/?p=27"},"modified":"2014-06-18T15:17:51","modified_gmt":"2014-06-18T15:17:51","slug":"the-accidental-lactation-teacher-from-housewifemother-to-airline-secretary-to-student-to-nurse-to-practitoner-to-teacher-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/geddesproduction.com\/Kittie-Blog\/?p=27","title":{"rendered":"The Accidental Lactation Teacher – From housewife\/mother to airline secretary, to student to nurse to practitoner to teacher Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

FROM SECRETARY, AIRLINES TO NURSE<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t \u201cmarry well\u201d as my mother would have politely put it and my husband was often out of a job while trying to put himself through school.\u00a0 Whenever that happened I had to step in and go to work to support the family.\u00a0 I managed to learn how to maintain breastfeeding with my second and third child while being a working mother and the youngest breastfed until she was 4! \u00a0The working mother was more of an oddity back then. \u00a0I often took jobs as a secretary or receptionist.\u00a0 One of the secretary jobs was for TWA airlines in reservations\u2026\u2026..so\u00a0 the 1960\u2019s school push to send girls to secretary or airline careers sort of came true for me in those working years!<\/p>\n

It was when my youngest was 4 that my husband got a good steady job and I could leave the work force.\u00a0 Happy was I to be able to stay home!\u00a0 Being mother to my children was a joy and I hated to have to leave them to go to work.\u00a0 While doing the dishes one day a strong thought came over me to go back to school.\u00a0 My immediate response was, \u201cRight, with my learning problems? No,\u201d I argued.\u00a0 The thought prevailed.\u00a0 I woke to it, fell asleep with it and I couldn\u2019t shake it.<\/p>\n

During that prior year as a La Leche League leader, I had given a guest lecture to a class at California State Los Angeles University School of Nursing on the topic of breastfeeding.\u00a0\u00a0 To quiet the voice, I phoned that contact to inquire about entering the nursing program.\u00a0 \u201cOh, you\u2019d be a great nurse!\u201d she replied.\u00a0 It was my dream of being a doctor but maybe a nurse was close enough.\u00a0 Following her direction to the admissions office, I applied and was turned down for admission.\u00a0 They couldn\u2019t admit me because I had flunked out of pre-med at University of Illinois.\u00a0 I was actually pleased to be able to quiet the \u201cgo to school\u201d thoughts until the admissions counselor said, \u201cValley College will take anyone. Why don\u2019t you try there?\u201d\u00a0 All the way home I heard, \u201cValley College, Valley College, Valley College\u201d<\/p>\n

So armed with my University of Illinois \u201cflunked out\u201d transcript, I went to Valley College hoping they would turn me down.\u00a0 I was actually pleased with the letter that arrived denying me admission until I read the last paragraph. \u00a0\u201cIf you wish to contest this decision, please meet with Dean Lewis on Friday at 3pm\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dean Lewis, Dean Lewis, Dean Lewis\u2026 began the thought.\u00a0 I determined to say nothing to Dean Lewis as I took a seat in the chair in front of his desk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, let\u2019s see,\u201d he began.\u00a0 \u201cIt has been 10 years since University of Illinois and a lot of life happens in that time.\u00a0 I will admit you for one semester.\u00a0 If you get anything less than a B, it will be your last semester here. Do you want to accept that?\u201d<\/p>\n

I shook his hand, went out to the grass of the quad, sat down and surrendered.\u00a0\u00a0 I realized it was futile to fight where I was so obviously supposed to go\u2026\u2026\u2026..to be the other 1960’s school-suggested career for girls\u2026\u2026.., a nurse.<\/p>\n

I took Psychology, Sociology & beginning Chemistry.\u00a0 Having failed Quantitative Analysis and Qualitative Analysis chemistry at the University of Illinois, beginning Chemistry was easy.\u00a0 I got two A\u2019s and a B.\u00a0 To overcome my learning disability I figured out I could memorize if my body was moving.\u00a0 To keep the knowledge in my brain, I had to use it constantly.\u00a0\u00a0 And I found if I read for short periods, then got up to put a load of laundry in and then back to reading, that worked too.\u00a0\u00a0 As an adult I\u2019d found a way around the challenges my learning disability.<\/p>\n

I completed my prerequisites and applied for the nursing program.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was told there were hundreds of applicants and only a small number of spots available in the nursing program.\u00a0 I was told my chances were slim.\u00a0 I just smiled as I wasn\u2019t in charge of this journey.\u00a0 I was in the next class. I remember thinking on the first day of orientation, \u201cWhat am I doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n

I found I was good at the clinical rotations but slugged through the nursing theory.\u00a0 If it made sense, I was all over it, but if it didn’t, it was harder to remember.\u00a0 At graduation the other young grads asked me what hospital I would apply to?\u00a0 \u201cHaven\u2019t thought about that yet,\u201d was all I could say.\u00a0 When I did look at hospitals, I was offered night shifts.\u00a0 I knew that wouldn\u2019t work for my family.\u00a0 So I found myself a nurse but why had I done this?\u00a0 Where was I to go next?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FROM SECRETARY, AIRLINES TO NURSE I didn\u2019t \u201cmarry well\u201d as my mother would have politely put it and my husband was often out of a job while trying to put himself through school.\u00a0 Whenever that happened I had to step in and go to work to support the family.\u00a0 I managed to learn how to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-as-a-peds-nurse-practitioner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/geddesproduction.com\/Kittie-Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/geddesproduction.com\/Kittie-Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/geddesproduction.com\/Kittie-Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/geddesproduction.com\/Kittie-Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/geddesproduction.com\/Kittie-Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/geddesproduction.com\/Kittie-Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35,"href":"http:\/\/geddesproduction.com\/Kittie-Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/geddesproduction.com\/Kittie-Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/geddesproduction.com\/Kittie-Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/geddesproduction.com\/Kittie-Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}