Today marks my official last day working as a certified nursing assistant in a nursing home. Over this past year and a half I've learned so much, and I've seen so much more. Being a CNA has been quite the experience to say the least. It was my first full time job, and my first time working in a job in healthcare. As I sit back and recount all of the crazy situations and hilarious moments, I know that I will never get any other job like one as a CNA. I went in not knowing what to expect, and I came out humbled and extremely appreciative of the nursing field, specifically of nursing assistants.To those of you who are not aware of CNAs and what they do, allow me to now educate you.

He's a soft spoken man, but since I've gotten to know him he's been a little more open talking. On my last day of clinical on the unit, he looks at me during breakfast and randomly says, "You remind me of my mother."
I laughed. "How so?"
"Because she used to feed me all the time when I was a child."
"Was your mother a good woman?" I ask.
He nods with a smile on his face. "She definitely was."

On the first day of clinicals I got to clean and paint an old lady's nails. When I asked if she wanted me to paint her nails she said "Oh I don't even know what that is," apprehensively as I pointed to the nail polishes. I smiled at her and told her to choose any color that she wanted so I could paint them, and she chose the brightest pink of the batch. Right after painting her first nail she kept saying how beautiful the color looked. Once I finished she excitedly asked me how long it would take for the nails to dry, and I told her about ten minutes. She nodded and kept her hands completely still so she would not mess them up while still admiring them.

Throughout my experiences and interactions with people, there is one conclusion that I've come to: People love talking about themselves. Many times, I let other people talk because they seem to enjoy having someone listen to them. I learn a lot about people simply by listening more and responding when appropriate. Some people will continue to talk about themselves as long as they have an audience. It's normal, we are all social beings that need interaction and need to be heard.

I was probably about six years old and sitting in the backseat of the car while my mom was driving back home in the evening. I looked out the window as I was asking her a myriad of questions about how life works. I asked her why dad has to go to work, and what he needs money for, where the money comes from etc.- simple annoying questions that little kids like to ask. After trying to answer all of my questions, my mom said what she usually says when she doesn't feel like explaining: "You'll understand when you're older." I responded by saying that I wish I was a grown-up so I could understand what all of this stuff was that grown-ups apparently knew more than kids. She just chuckled and said, "When you get older you're going to wish you were a kid again, so don't rush growing up." It's the piece of advice that I've kept close to me to this day, because even at six years old I had a feeling she would be right.

And she was. 

As the year 2013 is coming to a close, it's always nice to look back on the year to see how much you've done. I know people always say this at the end of a year, but this year has been the best year for me yet. I've gone through my share of bad days in 2013, but not without an abundance of spectacular days that I will always remember. It was a year of new experiences and late nights. From spontaneous adventures in the woods to staying up late watching superhero movies with friends, I've had so much fun this year because of the amazing people that I have been blessed to have in my life.

I can already see it coming; 2014 is going to be a year full of changes. My last semester in college, graduation, job searching... It all seems very scary to me, but I'm ready for whatever. As for resolutions for 2014? Besides trying to establish my habit of doing yoga regularly, there isn't really much else that I have in terms of goals. Looking at a giant list of New Year's Resolutions is intimidating to me, so I think looking at one goal and focusing on that will be better than trying to tackle fifty of them at once. I think the main reason why many New Year's resolutions go down the drain is because one, we often take on too many of them at once, and two, because we start off with big steps instead of little ones. If we focus one goal at a time, with consistent baby steps, it will achieve better results in terms of establishing a habit. It may not be how everyone goes about things, but this has actually been effective for me in terms creating new habits. To end this spiel, I'm expecting to learn a lot more about myself in 2014 and grow more as a person through plenty of new experiences, no matter what they are. I'm pretty psyched.

Anyway, I just wanted to end this post with some of my favorite moments from 2013.