24- Giving yourself advice

In the 1951 animated feature Alice in Wonderland, Alice gives herself a musical pep talk when she is lost in the wilderness that is Wonderland. She begins to sing to herself that she gives herself good advice, but never follows it. That her problem is that she is curious and impatient and knows that there will be consequences.

And she weeps. All the wildlife that has surrounded her to listen weep as well.

These tears flood the surroundings and she has to swim for it. She meets a friendly mouse along the way. All is not lost. But this scene is beautiful in the movie and speaks to the student in all of us.

You see when you are in college classes and there is so much going on, it is hard to keep things like assignment due dates, and even assignments themselves, and testing dates front and center in your brain. Things can be missed or turned in late for a penalty.

We know what we have to do, but, like Alice, it is often hard to take our own advice.

I know that I should be reviewing all I’ve learned over the past 2 years, and I do a fair amount of rereading, but I also want to read ALL the books.

As a known procrastinator, this is something that I work on daily.

To track due dates I have them written in

my calendar app
on my dining room wall
on a Post-it on my desk

Why three? Because I know myself and my ways and I will belt and suspender and belt this for all I’m worth.

Last week I wrote about the Blue Caterpillar and his very opening query of Alice. Who are you?

Through school you will get to know yourself intimately. All the vices and the virtues. Pay attention to them so you can turn things in on time.

And, like Alice, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Alice never went alone in Wonderland. We don’t have to either.

It is okay to give ourselves advice. Just be careful to follow it, huh?

School Me Saturday 5/25/24- the hookah-smoking caterpillar in the corner

In this continuing Alice in Wonderland/college/adult learner exploration, I would be remiss if I didn’t address the caterpillar in the room.

I am, of course, referring to the Blue Caterpillar who is first introduced to Alice by challenging her existence.

OOO….RRR…UUU spells the smoke as the Blue Caterpillar looks at Alice and placidly sucks on the hookah.

This is a very important question. WHO ARE YOU.

This is an answer that college will definitely challenge. After all, being in college usually means working toward a degree or a certificate that will redefine you. It is important to begin the journey with a sense of self.

During Alice’s time in Wonderland, the Blue Caterpillar is important, beginning with the first question. Her answer is that she doesn’t know, or, rather, that the answer had changed from that morning. Being aware of the changes in perception of self that college brings is also a very important nugget of information to have. Of equal importance is the acceptance that Alice has changed as a person, even since she woke up in the morning.

In my myriad of college experiences, I feel that I’ve remained the same person, even though that cannot possibly be the case. It is how others perceive me that has changed. I was a teenager in my first experience and I grew up. As one does. I was a CNA when I re-started nursing school after an injury. Through that journey, I became a telemetry tech and a uni secretary who just happened to do CNA tasks as well. After nursing school, I was a nurse. Going back to school for my BSN, MSN and now, I remain a nurse first, and a student second.

Every college experience is a journey. Hopefully, you or your Alice has a Blue Caterpillar to offer up things to eat for growth. Kind of like how students have to go through classes, learning and writing all the way, to get out the other side.

The Who Are You answer may fundamentally change.

Or it might not.

But growth is the way through college.

No matter how it is defined.

School Me Saturday 5/18/24- Brown v Board of Education

No, this is not an Alice in Wonderland School Me Saturday.

This is to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the landmark education case that was the Brown v Board of Education. This was to end the forced “racial” segregation of the black students and the white students.

This has been hailed as the start of school desegregation. And is known as a very good thing (literary reference).

Now, some people definitely thought this was a bad thing. They rioted and threw several fits over the very idea that the schools be desegregated.

They are still fighting. In my home state of North Carolina, the super majority legislature decided that it wasn’t fair that wealthy parents have to pay the entire cost of educating their precious children in a private school and they decided to start a school voucher program that does allow some disadvantaged students to attend a private school but mostly is a give away to the wealthy. After all the school voucher program, which is already out of money and holding their hand out for more, doesn’t cover all the cost of the private school. The parents of those who win have to pony up the rest.

It does further the interest in undermining public education which has been on the wishlist of those who don’t like public education. You know, the ones with the test scores, and the oversight. Especially the oversight.

I wonder how that will go.

As I tell my fellow operating room folks there is a reason for a policy and a rule. This does away will all the rules. Except for the ones that you can break with impunity because your daddy or mommy has the money to buy you out of whatever scrape you find yourself in.

I also wonder what Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren would make of the rollback of our rights.

I bet he would be disappointed in the current Supreme Court.

With their Originalism and their desire to control women.

By what means necessary. After all, have to ensure the continuation of the White Male Race, even if they have to steal a uterus to do so.

Apparently this School Me Saturday was School Me Saturday and Top of Mind Tuesday all in one.

Oops.

Brown v. Board of Education happened 21 years before I was born. The effects have been widespread and those who dislike it have been determined to undermine it.

Same shit, different decade.

School Me Saturday 4/27/24-Off with her head!

Reminder- this series is roughly based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. In this series, Alice is the student and the other characters are actors in the student’s life.

Nope. It isn’t Alice’s head that needs to be lopped off. It is the Queen of Hearts.

In this post, we are going to pretend that the Queen of Hearts is the little whisper of self-doubt that all students have. Regardless of where they are in the college/university/degree journey.

ALL students have that little voice that whispers to them that they are not good enough.

That they are only in the program they are in because of pity.

That the next test/essay/research paper will be their last.

Because how can they last?

Do they really think they can finish?

Do they really think no one is laughing at them and their audacity for thinking they are on par with their classmates?

And, if they finish by the grace of the teachers, how do they think they will pass the next test? In nursing, this is the NCLEX, the national boards that assess a nurse’s readiness to practice safely.

It is insidious, that little voice in all students’ heads.

In the book, Alice draws the Vorpal sword, which allows her to defeat the Jabberwocky by cutting off its head and defeating the Jabberwocky allows her to defeat the Queen of Hearts.

The key to defeating the student’s Queen of Hearts little voice is to draw their own Vorpal sword.

This is gonna get a little metaphysical but bear with me.

The Queen of Hearts yells constant threats. Off with his head, off with her head. But no heads are actually lopped off except the Jabberwocky. She is all bluster and vim, but in the end, Alice proves her to be thin and unsubstantial. Because the Queen of Hearts is only a playing card. In naming her to be inconsequential Alice defeats her.

The little voice in students’ heads (and I am not immune) can be defeated in such a manner. It is about recognizing the voice and knowing that the voice is not telling the truth which allows the student to defeat the voice.

This is not an easy battle, (see me in my fourth degree program and still struggling at times with the voice), but naming the voice and recognizing that it is self-doubt at its heart allows us to ignore the voice. Ignoring the voice leads to its defeat, just like paying a lot of attention to the voice allows it to grow.

My best advice is to talk to other students and have conversations about defeating self-doubt. There is safety in numbers and when one student is having a bad day, the others can serve as a support system to buoy them up.

Above all, give yourself grace.

This is new. This is difficult. But there have been others before you.

Talk to them. Talk to your classmates. Find the voice and squash it like a little bug!

This is where I put in a mantra- the only way out is through.