I remember the first time she told me about it.

We were sitting out on the front porch of her Grandparents cottage.

It’s the same cottage I’m at now, with the same shower water that drives into my back like flintstones, because of the pressure behind it.

It was a sunny afternoon, almost too warm, but then, what can you expect for summers in the south?

I was sitting on the bench swing with the straight backrest, and the longer we talked, the squirmier I got.

She sat poised, thoughtful.

We hashed about this and that, and then she dropped the news on me.

I went from squirmy to stunned in a nanosecond, and I’m guessing my move wasn’t lost on her.

She told me she was going to start nursing school.

My mind blocked off for a bit while I processed that info.

Because, the first thing my mind said was that she was shooting herself in the foot.

For starters, she wasn’t married, and I figured this move would do serious harm to that thought.

And secondly, I knew a bit about the rigors of nursing school, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to see her go through all that agony.

Thirdly, I knew some in her family were squeamish about blood, and even if I didn’t know if she was or not, I wasn’t sure how much support she would get from them because of that.

Of course, this whole thought process didn’t take very long to deliberate on, and in small minute I heard myself voicing my support for her proposed life choice.

It wasn’t until later that day I realized how much wisdom was in her choice.

Nor how much courage.

I began to realize how much it must have taken to turn the page to this new chapter in her life.

(Or at least I thought I did.)

And I realized that it was the step that was headed in the best and right direction.

I realized then that she isn’t so much different from most of us.

I have friends who have been in the same situation, more or less, as she was, and I saw them taking this same step.

It’s a step that, when looked at with a cursory glance, seems headed in the wrong direction and away from everything safe and normal.

But it’s a step when viewed with more time and experience, shows it was actually the right thing to do.

I thought of how her life would have gone, should she have chosen not to take this step. 

It certainly would have constricted, I realized, as I viewed it from a few steps back.

And, what I thought in the beginning, that she might be throwing away any chance of other plans seemed completely opposite when viewed with this new insight.

I see people stepping forth to become schoolteachers, cna’s, secretaries, jobsite foremen, logistics managers, you name it, and I see them taking a step away from what they know, and a step into what that they don’t know.

And I applaud each of those steps.

Because it seems, when viewed from the other side, that each of those steps is the epitome of enrichment, regardless of how nonsensical they seem at the time.

For sure when I saw the 70 plus folks who showed up for her graduation yesterday.

Or when I saw her giant of a big brother turn her way and she tucked herself into his strong embrace. 

And I knew that embrace had been waiting just for this time to tell her what he thought of her, really.

Most of us know very little about nursing, or nursing school.

But we knew a lot about how the one graduating has enriched our lives in the past 3-4 years. 

I hope I will always have the courage to take that step, whenever it is presented to me.