Big Hairy Dreaming Part 2

This is a continuation: you can read part 1 here: Big Hairy Dreaming Part 1. Reading in order helps. :) 

I am calm. I am happy. I am pursuing a big, hairy, terrifyingly audacious dream. We all know I simply am more of a Monica person with a fun side of Phoebe mixed in.  I am returning to pediatrics to work with parents and children and my most favorite doctor-mentor-friends in the whole world while I become my best possible self. It will mean missing some things. It will mean late nights studying sometimes, and proving myself as a rookie all over again. It will mean a whole lot of hard work, hustle and humility. I will also plant flowers, chase storms, and love on my kiddos (OF COURSE).

But I am NOT shying away from a dream. That is not the kind of person, woman, wife, and MOTHER that I am. 

"God willing, I am the only mom my kids will ever know, and I honestly don't know any other way to make this all work-for all of us-without multi-tasking sometimes. So I refuse to teach them that you should pursue your dreams but simultaneously be ashamed of them."

-Rachel Hollis, Girl Stop Apologizing

I am headed back to pediatrics in a place where my dream can grow, and with friends who will lift me up when it all feels like too much...blunt ones who will tell me to dust myself off, get back up and keep going. 

A few pretties for my new desk...I will be sitting just across from my old one lol!

Thanks to my newest imaginary bestie (Rachel Hollis) I have created my 10-10-1. Ten years, ten goals and one big fat dream that helps me get to all of the goals, and the goals to the dream. You ready? I'm calling my shot which means YOU can help hold me accountable. Some goals seem a bit selfish. Some may seem silly. Some are downright scary as hell. But they are all personal to me, which will drive me as things get tougher. Because they will. Things will get downright hard. 

Come to Mama!

By the time I am 47, in no particular order of importance:

1. Earn FNP (by 40) AND PMHNP (by 43 which gives time for 1-2 years to work as NP and 1 year for cert)  to be DUAL certified in family medicine and psychiatry as an NP.

2. Earn 6 figure salary, because I will deserve it.

3. Use Thor in animal therapy weekly with some patients.

4. Secure annual speaking engagements at local high schools and churches about teens and mental health.

5. Have a housekeeper come once a week to clean my floors, bathrooms, and wash bedding...because I don't want to, and at when I get to this point I have earned it!

6. Travel to one country and one state each year. I mean...DUH. Never stop adventuring.

7. Drive an orange, classic, muscle car. Yes, I have a thing for old muscle cars. And orange. When I graduate with my FNP, I get one.

8. Be healthy and strong by exercising and moving 5+times a week. 

9. Weekly family meals even as kids get older to come together to talk, pray and laugh.

10. Have an exceptional marriage. I really, truly already do, but weekly date nights and special attention to us will continue to keep it that way.

Big Audacious Dream: Open my own practice in integrated adolescent health care & wellness. 

I was reminded yesterday as I talked to not one, but two scared mothers of teens just how prevalent anxiety and depression have become in children-especially teens! And...there are not ENOUGH providers to keep up with the demand to help these families. FNP will give me a firm foundation and let me make money while I continue on, but Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP...I know a LOT of letters) will allow me to diagnose, treat, provide therapy and prescribe medication for mental health and wellness. Having both will let me treat the WHOLE person not just one aspect or the other. Being in pediatrics as an advice/triage RN actually FEEDS my motivation for school. 

I want my own practice. I even have a name for it. That I will keep just to myself for now. 

My mama got me this 💗