Starting School in Charm City

Hello!  I’m Emily, and I just started nursing school in the Traditional class of 2012.  So far, I’m incredibly impressed with the faculty, the staff, the focus on innovative teaching and learning, and of course my classmates.  It still feels very new, and even a little surreal, to be learning how to become a nurse – my aspiration for many years.

Unlike many of my classmates who flew and drove here from all over the country, I have  been living in Baltimore for five years now, and I love it.  I moved down from the Boston area for my first degree, and then stayed for a year to complete my prerequisites.  So, my little portion of the SON blog will be focused on living in Baltimore and being a nursing student in Baltimore.  Living here among formidable medical institutions, juxtaposed with even more formidable public health challenges, was certainly a major factor in my choice to go to nursing school and will continue to guide my learning.  But it’s also a really fun, accessible, friendly city.  Charm City charms me.  So, I hope to highlight the fun, and some of the challenges, that Baltimore has to offer (mostly the fun part).

And to get that started, I should mention an ongoing, free event coming up tomorrow (Thursday, Sept. 2) in Mt. Vernon, the neighborhood just north of Downtown.  It’s an outdoor concert in the park beneath the Washington Monument, part of a series called First Thursday (can you guess why?) that’s hosted by WTMD, a listener-supported radio station based at Towson University.  This week the Holmes Brothers will be performing their blend of “rootsy, R&B, gospel, and country,” which sounds great to me.  I heard them on the radio the other day and have been looking forward to hearing them. So bring a blanket, a picnic, and enjoy the end of summer.