I am honored to be speaking on behalf of the graduating students of the AS Nursing program of Edison State College.
Tonight my fellow graduates and I are being symbolically welcomed into the nursing profession. The nursing pin may be a tiny little badge, but it is a monumental symbol of hard work and unwavering faith. While we studied and worked and missed too many important family days, you–our families and loved ones–kept your faith in us, became our human alarm clocks, our unflinching shock absorbers, our tireless cheerleaders. Your patience, love and support sustained us through seemingly endless semesters of nursing school. You are the reason why this evening is possible at all. My own parents flew halfway across the world from the Philippines to join us here tonight. And so I ask you all to give them and all of our families and loved ones here with us a warm round of applause.
It is still almost surreal that we are finally at this juncture. Barely two years ago, we were all still anxious about even getting into the nursing program. Well, we did get in–the chosen few, the cream of the crop, at least that’s how it felt when we got the call from Prof. Bobby Holbrook. That fleeting sense of victory quickly gave way to panic during those first early weeks of Health Assessment. Our poor lab manikins bore the brunt of our struggles with Foley catheters, trach collars and stethoscopes searching for that elusive S3 or S4. We could have sworn then that we’d developed a stiff wall.
But thankfully we kept our health and–miraculously–our sanity throughout progressively challenging semesters. Our confidence in our skills and our judgment grew, nurtured by instructors who reminded us that we could, despite whatever difficulty: Prof. Cathy Bogar, who we suspect is the inspiration behind the Energizer Bunny; Prof. Andrea Kopp, whose refreshing wit balanced out the tenacity with which we argued over exam questions. (Yes, those two extra points seemed worth fighting for); Prof. Bobby Holbrook, who always manages to convince us that we are the best nursing students ever. Ever. (Well, Bobby, you are the best nursing professor, nurse practitioner, and program coordinator ever); all of our other instructors who patiently taught us in clinicals helped us believe we had the ability to become more than just competent.
And I truly believe we are an amazing group of graduates. One couldn’t have picked a more diverse group, in terms of professional backgrounds, age, race and culture. We have teachers, engineers, former hairdressers, past and present healthcare workers, bankers, and restaurant managers. It seems the one thing we had in common was this belief that nursing would be the right profession for us. After all, it takes an extraordinary person to do what we have accomplished thus far. As esteemed nurse Rawsi Williams aptly puts it: “To do what nobody else will do, in a way that nobody else can do, in spite of all we go through; is to be a nurse.” We nursed not just our patients, but each other as we struggled to balance the demands of nursing school with the demands of keeping a job and taking care of our families. As we coped with personal losses, we were consoled by the camaraderie of our classmates. As we struggled with self-doubt, we reminded each other of how worthy and capable we were. We passed around not just bags of snack food in class, but also pats on the back, comforting hugs, the reassurance that we are not alone and that we would succeed together.
And so today, my fellow graduates, as we receive this welcome into our new profession, let us stand true to what we’d been taught; to keep upholding the ideals of compassion, excellence, and a heart and soul for caring. Let us let go of what once was our favorite nursing diagnosis of Powerlessness and embrace our newfound Readiness for Enhanced Power. I will always count myself blessed to have been a part of this batch. Congratulations, Class of 2011! We finally did it!
Dinah Baseleres-Ladia delivered this valedictory on May 14, 2011 in behalf of the graduating class of Edison State College School of Nursing in Fort Myers, Florida. She also graduated magna cum laude in Physics at Silliman University in 1997.
