5 year plan

Wouldn't it be nice to know what will be going on for the next five years of your life? I have been thinking about my future a lot lately. It has been almost five years since I graduated from my massage therapy course. I can't believe it has been almost five years!! I have been thinking that massage is not something I can do forever. I don't mind it, but I definitely don't have the passion for it that I used to. I am finding that it can be quite repetitive and boring. However I do have a good number of clients who I really appreciate and enjoy working on. I like working with people, and I like when someone gets off the table and says "Wow, I feel so much better." I definitely like aspects of massage, but massage is just massage and when you get too old or sore to do massage there are not too many other opportunities out there to stop treating but still make money.

Over the last few years, I have contemplated nursing as a career path. I believe that I have what it takes to be a nurse. I have a number of friends who are nurses, and I have read stories and comments on a nursing forum numerous times. I think I have a fairly good grasp on what a career in nursing might be like. A few weeks ago I went to SIAST to talk to an academic advisor there about the requirements to apply to the Nursing Education Program of Saskatchewan (NEPS). I found out some disappointing things. Basically, I screwed myself over by doing so poorly in my third year of university many many years ago. What I was told is that there are a certain number of seats reserved in the program for people coming out of high school, and a certain number for those with some post secondary education. The required average, 76%, is the same for both groups and has been increasing by a percent or two each year. So, I would need to have at least a 76% average in my most recent 18 credit units of university classes to even be considered for the NEPS. My average isn't anywhere near that because I did so poorly in my 3rd year. My option is to take 18 credits of additional classes then apply to the NEPS if my average is high enough. I am leaning toward trying that option.

Today I registered with Athabasca University. For those of you who don't know, it is an almost entirely correspondance university. I am planning to take 18 credits of classes (one 6 credit and four 3 credit) courses over the next year and a half, then see if I can even think about applying for nursing. If not, I guess I will try to find a different direction. I am hoping to keep working while I do these courses. The way I have it figured out is that I would only do two classes at a time starting July 1 of this year and ending by the end of December of next year. I think it's doable.

One thing that frustrates me is that the admission to the NEPS is based solely on grades. I think that there should be more to it than that. I think that my massage education and working on people for the last five years would be an advantage in pursing a career in nursing. I knew that my massage courses would not transfer to university credit, but I thought that it might at least be taken into consideration. I wonder if someone who graduated high school almost 11 years ago, who did not go to university, who had an average of 85% in high school would do any better in the NEPS than someone who had been doing massage therapy for the last almost 7 years. I realize that they have to have a measure of who they can accept and who they can't. I also realize that an interview process would be time consuming and expensive. It just sucks for me! If they could overlook my university grades I would get in, no problem, my high school average was always well over 80%. Oh well, I am going to give Athabasca a try and if that doesn't work I will keep my mind open to other opportunities.