A Word on Endings

I have never been a fan of endings.

I sobbed as a kid as I drove away from summer camp for the very last time. I cried at unpredictable times in the months that followed me ending my twelve year gymnastics career. And in the weeks leading up to college graduation, I found myself moved to tears at the thought of four of the best years of my life coming to an end.

I am clearly not a fan of endings. But, I do love what they represent.

At the risk of sounding cliché, every ending is really just the start of something new - a new beginning, fresh start, and chance to maybe even experience bigger and better things. A chance to grow as a person, because even though we would all love to forever stay surrounded by the people, places, and experiences that make us comfortable, it would be a disservice to ourselves. A disservice to the people we can become and are meant to be. There are too many other wonderful people, incredible places, and once in a lifetime experiences out there to stay in one place forever.

So although I dislike endings, I know they are a necessity in the journey to becoming my best self and living my best life. Endings make us appreciate the people, places, and experiences that much more. Knowing that one day things will end, makes them that much sweeter while we experience them.

As I drive away from Yale New Haven Hospital today, the hospital that I was born at, the place where I visited my mom at work many times as a kid, and the hospital that gave me my very first job as a nurse, I am sure there will be tears. But as I drive away, full of all the emotions that accompany the end of something that was so very good, I will be equally as full with gratitude for what it has given me over the past year and a half. I can't help but consider myself to be extremely blessed. In a world where first jobs are often just that, a first job and a stepping stone to something better, I felt that my first job was that something better.

I am a better nurse and a better person for the time I spent at Yale New Haven Hospital. I have grown not only comfortable but also confident in my role as a nurse, I have learned more than I ever could have imagined, I have found what I am passionate about in the field of nursing, and I have grown as a person because of the work I have done over the past eighteen months.

The beautiful thing about endings, is that although they end, you always take a part of them with you. I may be leaving, but I am taking with me all that Yale has taught me & given me in my short time there. I leave with so much gratitude in my heart for the experience, but even more so for the people. The coworkers that became friends and the relationships formed will forever be close to my heart. And for that, I am eternally blessed.

xo. G