02/10/2025
Letters to My Younger Nurse Self
If I could tell you what I know now…
I would tell you to breathe before you run.
To eat when your stomach grumbles in the quiet of a night shift.
To sleep when the alarms finally pause.
I would tell you tears are not weakness
they are proof that your heart is alive, even when the ward is silent.
That grief will visit you in bathroom stalls, in your car, in the quiet hum of machines
and it’s okay to let it pass through you.
I would tell you that not every life can be saved,
but every life can be honored.
That holding a hand, whispering a prayer, offering presence
sometimes that is more than medicine.
I would tell you to guard your fire.
To love fiercely, but not to burn yourself out in the process.
To remember that compassion is sacred,
but your soul is too.
I would tell you that the scrubs will fade,
the charts will pile,
the monitors will beep endlessly
but the courage, the kindness, the way you make someone feel
that stays forever.
I would tell you to believe in the quiet power you carry.
To know that every stumble, every tear, every heart you cradle
is shaping the nurse you are becoming.
And finally…
I would tell you to be gentle with yourself.
Because one day, decades later,
you’ll look back and realize:
the love you poured into others
was never wasted.
It became you.
