How Will I Feel....

...when I'm no longer "a nurse"?
Oh, I'll keep up my license and do some reading on the changes in the profession and the long term care industry. But will I be able to "see" myself as not a working RN? Just who will I be. After all that's what I've been for 43 years. Add nursing school to that and it's 3 years longer.

I don't think I've defined myself as a nurse. When I tell someone my profession, I usually say I'm a writer and nursing pays the bills. That's how I've looked at it for years. I take my work seriously but not myself. I am more than that RN after my name - always have been, always will be.

So in the next year as I prepare for retirement, marriage and a move, I don't think I'll be going through an identity crisis. I've always had "multiple personalities". As Morgan once said, "I don't know who I'll want to be tomorrow." That's why we're together - to go on that journey in the future.