Avogadro's...What?

For those of you that don't know, I have been wanting to enter the field of senior care as a second career. I took a big leap in that direction Thursday. I went to my local community college to gather information about enrolling for the RN program. It was a little daunting, I'll explain.

Before going to see the admissions counselor I did a lot of research on nursing. Takes a little over a year to become an LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse). It takes just under 3 years to become an RN (Registered Nurse). I looked into the financial aspects, the demand for nurses and the many ways the degree can be applied.

I have been so excited that I have a clear direction that I forgot about a little something called...math. The admissions counselor gave me two student guides for taking the entrance assessment exam. The first guide is on reading, writing and math skills. I consider myself above average intelligence (the first person to send me something regarding my grammar or punctuation dies!). Math has never been what one might call my strong suit, but I have always been able to get by.

Now I know the reason I have always been able to get by...I don't use algebra, geometry or trigonometry on a daily basis! I recall being pretty good at fractions and algebra in school, but that was a very long time ago. Tonight as I tried to answer the questions I found that my brain had completely dumped all of that information to make room for things like, kids and dogs and meatloaf recipes.

It was a humbling experience to ask my teenage children to give me a refresher on some basic fractions and a thing called Avogadro's number (I'm still not really sure what the hell that is so don't ask me to explain it). After they explained and wrote down a few reference notes for me, I took my first practice exam online. Out of 24 questions, I missed 11.(to be fair to me, I did very well on Humanities, Reading and the Essay portion of the test) I have my work cut out for me in the math department.

One might think I would be discouraged by the failing grade...nope, I'm not. It was only my first attempt, after some studying I fully expect to get 19 questions right the next time I take it. Because I plan to cheat! No, not really. I expect to get a passing grade because I found that I liked it! It turns out that my kids are very patient teachers, although they did laugh at me a few times. It was actually fun to put areas of my brain into use that have been on hiatus for...(40-16=24...yeah, that's it 24 years).

I am really excited about school. I have a few hurdles in front of me, hopefully I will have financing in place for the summer program. In the meantime, I can get my CNA (certified nursing assistant).

And now begins the first step in the second career...