It starts with an change:
The story begins with the choice of what to do with your life. You have decided to make a change and go back to school, actually make something of yourself. It's a big step but you feel ready to do something different, for once in your life. Though preparing to take that step into a new career path, the thought of what you should do for a living occurs. In all honesty, these are the only two options you have in; Nursing and Writing.
One choice might be better than the other, but which one is it?
The fear of chosing the wrong path will effect you throughout the rest of your years to come. Will you be happy with your choice? Will you have regrets from it? Can you go back and change your mind? Will it be too late? Are you even good enough for either career? Have you past your prime to become the person you want to be in life? What can you do? What should you do?
So many things to think about. Though the choice is obvious, there is still a lot to concern in terms of longevity. This needs to be analyze thoroughly.
[[Nursing or Writing]]The Choice is yours and that's what scares you:
You have to be smart about this choice, it will effect your life either for the better or the worst.
Life as a nurse:
You can be of good uses to those in need of help. You can help heal those in dire care. You can make a living in the medical field as a nurse. Nurses make good money in the medical field and they are respected by all those around. It is a universal job. You have some experience as a caretaker. You enjoy taking care of those who can't or unable care for themselves.
Life as a writer:
You can make stories for a living. You can create characters people would want to meet in real life. You can develop your own new world through literature.
So, What's it going to be?
[[Nursing]]
Or,
[[Writing]]Journalist
You start at a small city newspaper publication as an intern or a staff writer. Work your way up to writing and covering hard hitting news revolving around current events; politics, entertainment, sports, opinion pieces.
One day, Become a regular columnist and have your work syndicated.
Practice interviewing people; here are some examples of interviews you have done already. The focuses were on the Arts and the condition of Mental Health.
[[Interview 1|How students with high stress levels and anxiety benefit from the arts]]
[[Interview 2|The History of Art and Mental Disorder]]
[[Interview 3|Using Creativity to manage your Anxiety and Stress]]
These are just starter interviews. Nothing too serious.
Maybe you can freelance throughout your career.
Try out being a novelist next.
[[Novelist]] Novelist
You start out with writing a small but memorable plotline, than develop it into the story you want to tell. Create characters that are interesting in their own rights. Uses a place well-known or create a fantasy world unknown to all but the main characters. Outline dialogues, make situations that would be relatable to the readers, come up with a compelling conclusion that makes the readers think about the overall concept of the story
You have finished you story, now what?
look into some literary agents, maybe send some sample chapters, not the whole manuscript, so they can get a feel of the description of your story; just a little taste.
Still not sure of this path as a career, maybe go for screen-writing.
[[Screenwriter]] Screenwriting
Do all the things the same way you would have in noveling, but add more visual detail for the viewers to connect with. Plan out the way the camera will voom in or out of frame, how the scene cuts to characters in situational events, and where in the storyline does the character is at in the film.
Use other screenplays as research as to how the character click with one another. Study camera angles from the plays. In all honesty, watch countless movie, but really watch them. Study the movements of the actors in a scene. View how the director portions the camera to reflected the setting of the scene. Maybe write out questions that you would want the director to answer, but answer them as the director yourself.
It's a lot to consider at this point of the story. You are feeling a bit overwhelmed with the choice you have to make right. But I may have the answer to this dilemma of yours.
[[Solution]]You are now studying to be in the nursing field of Medicine:
You have dedicated four years of college to become a certified nurse. You have studied bedside manners, how to properly put in a needle into the vain of a patient. You study the ins and outs of interacting with fellow nursing students as well as the docters you will be working with on the job.
You have graduated from college with a degree in nursing assistances. What should you do now?
Start off with being a Certified Nursing Assistant
[[CNA]]You are doing it, you are studying to be a writer, congrats to you!!!
You are learning about great writers before you. Shakespeare, Dickens, Austin, Hemingway. You are studying their craft as well as honing your own.
You research, you critique, you create, you write until your hands are numb and your fingers bleed.
You work until you feel like the writer you were meant to be.
You finished your studies and have all the knowledge you can get for how to be a writer. Now what?
Try your hand at journaling
[[Journalist]] No!
Even though it wouldn't take you too long to receive a certificate after training for your CNA license: about four to 12 weeks, at best.
Plus, you would be working in a variety of Hospitals and extended care facilities, such as nursing homes and community residences.
In addition, it's good pay; roughly $11-$12 a hour.
All facts would result to a good job, but it's just not enough for you. You wouldn't be fulfilled by it.
Maybe try your hand at being a Licensed Practical Nurse. Yeah, that's the ticket, baby.
[[LPN]] NOPE!
Even though LPNs have about the same repsonsibilities as CNAs, as well as more opportunities than them; work outside of traditional healthcare settings, being hired by families for private care for the sick and injuried, or working for businesses and provide basic care and health consultations to employees and customers.
And,the pay is better: $17-$25 an hour
Sounds really good, but no! You're just not feeling it.
Well, damn. This isn't going well, now is it???
Maybe you need to aim higher, try going for the positon as a Registered Nurse. Oh yeah, that will get you places.
[[RN]] No Freakin' Way!!!
Now, I know this is the most promising profession in nursing. However, this job requires a long length of training, a bachelor's or master's degree in nursing and a state license for consideration.
But, the duties of an RN are more advanced and demanding;
Maintaining accurate, complete health care records and reports.
Administering medications to patients and monitoring them for side effects and reactions.
Prescribing assistive medical devices and related treatments.
Recording patient vital signs and medical information.
Ordering medical diagnostic and clinical tests.
Monitoring, reporting, and recording symptoms or changes in patient conditions.
Administering non-intravenous medications.
Assessing, implementing, planning, or evaluating patient nursing care plans by working with healthcare team members.
Modifying patient health treatment plans as indicated by patient conditions and responses.
Finally, of course, the PAY: $24-$39 an hour.
All of this sounds great and it could be the job for you, if only you wanted to do that.
[[No Other Choice?]]How students with High Stress levels and anxiety benefit from the arts?
I sat down with GMU undergraduate professor Robert Yi to discuss how the contribution of the arts helps students deal with anxiety and stress-level during their time at school.
D.B.: Have you had any students expressed how the arts have helped them with their anxiety issues or their stress level?
Robert Yi: Absolutely, so it's a lot of students, I mean, there are students who are not able to express themselves vocally or like most other people may be socially awkward, or for whatever reasons, do not have the ability to communicate or express themselves the way they want to and I find that through the arts, whatever way, expresses themselves. To give them a voice where they would be able to do normally. Of course, I want them to be available to eventually be able to speak about the work as well. But this is a great step. They are stepping stones for them to start beginning to open up about themselves.
D.B.: A lot of people would say that the arts are an outlet to expressing myself without having to do it verbally and it gives them the chance to showcases their inner thoughts as well.
R.Y.: Right, and in a way, it's also done in a way that can be scary and a great way in the same way possible. It's also cutting it down in a way that is maybe not as direct, so people want to give hints of how their feeling but they don't want to speak it in the form of art so they make press given little hints of what they're trying to say. So they don't want to direct about it and other times it can be direct. So art is a great way for anybody to express themselves, on the basis of art therapy.
D.B.: How do the arts contribute to helping those with anxiety or stress from school?
R.Y.: I mean, I see a lot of people who are not art majors I guess (I'm not saying that our Department is less stressful) but a lot of people from engineering, computer science, biology today are the ones that are in my class. Those that are not art majors, they really, really appreciate my class as the form of their way of relieving stress to themselves. So much that it's kind of like meditation in some way.
D.B.: Can you identify a student's personality through their artwork? And how?
R.Y.: Yes, maybe I'm attaching the personality to the way they paint, but often the way they paint is very similar to their personality. For somebody that's very you know messy their painting is much looser. Whereas somebody that's very methodical neater, they will have a very tight painting, in other words, that are very geometric thin lines and colors that are no messy lines everything is very exact as you see it. People who, as you can tell by the brush strokes, how much stress or how they're feeling happy painting versus something that shows a lot of anger, they use by the strokes of paint that they use their selection of composition or the idea of what the content will be has a lot about what the person is thinking subconsciously or consciously and we look at paintings or others. We look at paintings that are in the gallery or any sort of paintings we do when we observe look for signs, of course, is conjecture for people that are not around.
D.B.: Which form of art best contributes to easing the mind when a student is at a high level of stress or anxiety?
R.Y.: It depends on the person, so a person playing the piano, another person can be drawing or writing poetry. I think it's not specific, I wouldn't say that one rule. Each person has their own comfort zone.
D.B. Finally, Do you practice any form of art to decrease your stress level from teaching?
R.Y.: I have not had a chance to do it that way because I've been so busy teaching. When I do paint, what I do is when I paint a happy painting, it's because I am happy. But sometimes I have to stop painting because I'm in a bad, mad or emotional mood, something about that bad experience, I get away from it because it's put me down so much that I express it in my paintings. My work has to do with sharing experience or commonality, that some people are going through finding beauty in little things. So I have changed my work from painting things that are a guard to painting things that are happy. Paint happy, be happy.The History of Art and Mental Disorder
For this portion of my project, I sat down with therapist Rebecca M. Gleed and discussed how the arts can help mend and stabilize the mind as it recovers through a manic episode.
D.B.: When do you think the arts became a factor for the healing process of the mind?
R.G.: I think art therapy modalities is kind of a natural progression in terms of how people naturally think, so it's that kind of anecdotal data of a window of expressive approaches that would include art and music therapy. One of the benefited boards with the right side of the brain is the healing because you're using that creative right brain. It's not trying when we get stuck in a certain part of therapy or just for the traditional talk therapy, there's certain, for lack of a better, term disorders such as like selected breaches where children don't wanna talk. For that part of their brains is just not activated so accessing feelings and growth, there are neurological areas.
D.B.: How do the arts, particularly visual arts, help the mind repair itself after an episode of any type of mental illness?
R.G.: The one thing is that there's a little part of the brain called the amygdala it's a little almond-shaped part of the limbic system and when something like that in the first sample in trauma, the limbic system is on overdrive and it produces a lot of adrenaline and what we see in the brain with someone and they will use whatever visual art that purchases oxytocin. The chemical is released and that's one example of how directly the artistic expressive approaches can produce what a patient is really feeling.
D.B.: Is there a specific type of art that is most popular amongst patients of yours that they practice on a regular base? Painting, Photography, Sculpting, Writing, etc.?
R.G.: I guess journaling would be a popular form of art, I wanna say that everyone has their own ways. People are so different, so even if there is one approach to it. Let's say that somebody said music is a big one, especially with adolescents. But, again, art is used in so many different forms.
D.B.: What are some challenges patients of yours face with when being unable to produce recovery through the arts?
R.G.: I would say the most honest area is with access, so there's a number of reasons why someone may not be able to access, for example, I provide a lot of therapy and so I don't tell in a therapy session the person doing art on their own time or doing it while we're talking. But in terms of the person, they're kind of being alongside pacifically that's not always a possibility, especially with the way that therapy is moving with forms of an online presence, that is going to be something for patients to think about. Some people don't have may not have my motor skills or they may not have the resources, the financial means, to access certain art right now but there's a lot of different reasons.
D.B.: As a therapist, would you consider the arts as "the last resort" to the process of recovery, or could it be used as a practice for the first time on a patient?
R.G.: Absolutely, you really have to take a good look at the person to see if they are showing signs that they have an expressive approach, such as our therapy could be helpful for someone is showing there, for sure, start there in mind of the clinical opinion. But, the approach some people were better or maybe more responsive to exposure therapy or with a number of different other options.
D.B.: Can mental illnesses be depicted/identified through patients' works of art? Why or Why not?
R.G.: In evidence base, there is time, for example, in children from my colors for example that suffer from trauma is indicated, obviously. It doesn't need the case that this child has experienced sexual trauma. Or even, in one model, you would see in expressive art therapy. You can often see an adult using a lot of aggressive animal or war examples in their artwork. You would look at the violence or their significant look to know of those who suffer from traumatic events, you see how the war has come up in their art.
Rebecca M. Gleed is an LMFT (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist) here in Fairfax, VA. She specializes in women’s issues and relational therapy such as couples counseling, therapeutic parenting and individuals navigating relationships. Her contact information is on her website: https://www.rebeccamgleedlmft.com/, Gleed's work number is (703) 683-9289.Using Creativity to Manage your Anxiety and Stress
Anxiety and Stress are common for everyone, it may not be as severe as having a mental disorder, but in some cases, they can cause serious harm to your health if it continues to fester in your mind. In my final interview, I talk to a fellow intern who deals with anxiety issues and channels it in her own way that benefits in storytelling.
D.B.: How do the arts or in the arts contribute to helping you with your anxiety issues with school or in life?
A.J.: It's a little difficult because the arts give you a channel. Sometimes, I think my mind would go in 1,000,000 different directions in 1,000,000 different possibilities when you channel it into the arts where they're creating or even viewing movies and stuff like that, it could narrow down the pathway and it helps you focus a little bit because it helps get rid of all that mental energy. I think in general anxiety is a “what if” disease to a certain degree and now you just can't stop thinking about “what if” and art allows you to explore those “what ifs”, in way that is much more functional and much safer than think about the world.
D.B.: Which type of arts do you practice?
A.J.: I write, primarily, my hand-eye coordination is terrible so as much as I would like to do visual artist stuff, it’s not a thing that happens, so I write. I used to be really into photography, and I make some music sometimes, admittedly again mostly lyricism, so again primarily writing.
D.B.: Do you channel your anxiety through your writing through forms of storytelling, poetry, etc.?
A.J.: I mostly tell stories, I mostly do fiction, big fiction fan. I think that there is something about fiction in, particularly fantasy in my case that dissociates it enough from the real world that you can actually deal with real issues. My idol is Kayla Quinn and she talks a lot about how fantasy and science fiction can actually help you explore reality more than nonfiction or realistic fiction can because of that distance and I really like that and respect that, so yeah that's what I do mostly.
D.B.: When do you the arts was able to help you through the healing process of your anxiety?
A.J.: I think I really started when I was 11 or 12, that was when I started writing poetry, which I do not do anymore. The world is better off for it. That's when things in my life started getting weird, so I just started writing. I had always been writing, I think I started writing when I started reading, it was like I picked up a book and thought “this is cool” and now I'm doing short stories.
Regardless of how big or small, minor or major the condition is, the arts have ways to help and heal the mind from any form of mental episode. It's all about how you channel those feeling that defines you and tells you who you are in life.YOU ARE NOT A DAMN NURSE!!!! YOU ARE A FREAKING WRITER, DUMBASS!!!!
Look, I'm sure you want to help people...but you can do that in YOUR own damn way.
You want to use your own words to help people, you want your stories to reach out to the masses. And as much as you want to be there for those in need, you need to do it in a way that makes sense to you.
Plus, the last thing you want to do is be the person to draw blood from someone's arm, when you know damn well you're more likely to pass out on the floor from the first sight of just one drop. Seriously?!? Come on, Now!!!
[[Writing]] DO IT ALL!!!
What is stopping you from being any and every type of writer you wish to be?
NOTHING!!!
This is your life, this is your career. If you have passion, creativity, and the will to be the best version of you that the world has never seen ...yet, then you do you, honey!!!
You are everything and so much more. Don't let haters, including yourself, turn you anyway from how you are meant to be.
[[Endgame]]
There is a light inside of us all. We have the power to be anything we wish to be out of life. To those wish us the best out of life, we thank you and wish you the same amount of wishes, love, and achievements.
[[Sample of my work]]
Before now, for the longest time, I felt lost, lonely, sad, and angry for all the reasons that were wrong with my life. Part of me, at my lowest of lows, wanted to end my suffering and not turn back. I wanted to just disappear from life, thinking to myself; no one would miss me. Now, I see how foolish and damaged I was to believe such a thing of myself. How could I let myself think that way for so long? Why would I do that to myself? Why would I do that to her? To my family? Never again. After my year at school, and my return back home, to the people I love and who love me just as I am, I now see the light and strength to continue, to fight the demons that try to bring me down. I finally see what my family sees. I finally can see me, just as I am.
The End...For Now.Well, we went through all the choice of nursing job and yet, they all said NO.
Damn Dude, I don't know what to tell you!
There might be another choice you can take.
But, before you get to it, ask yourself something...why do you think all of the choices that were handed to you, all the requirements, the responsiblities, and the amount of money you would receive, why do you think they all said NO???
It a tough thought, I know!
Wait, I think I figured it out.
The reason for all the NOs you got from each nursing job you looks though, the reason why they weren't the jobs for you, maybe, just maybe, it's because....
[[Bouns Choice]]