Being a nursing major is tough. There are ups and downs and sometimes at the end of the day, nursing might seem impossible, but it's not. I am okay with having mental breakdowns, countless hours of studying and a demolished social life because I want to work hard to become a nurse. Here are some struggles that all nursing majors know too well.
1. The struggle of applying to nursing school.
Everyone who is a nursing major can relate to the agonizing times of bringing up your ACT and SAT score because applying to your dream school was ten times harder once you threw nursing into the equation. Or, how about when everyone was happy about getting accepted into prestigious schools but didn't understand that applying nursing makes it so much harder to get accepted?
2. The struggle of the comments you get when you tell people what your major is.
When making small talk with a stranger, a common question is "What is your major?" This simple question can get very old for most nursing majors. Almost every time we respond with "nursing," the other person's response is usually the same. Sometimes it includes something like "Oh jeez you must be smart," "Are you always studying?" or a joke about how they are lucky they have an easy major. I hope people know that we actually do have lives and our lives do not consist of studying every part and intricate detail of the human body. We have fun ... sometimes.
3. The struggle of living in the library.
You can guarantee the same answer if you ask any nursing major "Are you going out tonight?" the answer most likely falls along the lines of "I want to, but I have so much to study I'm going to be here all night." Sometimes I often find myself studying from 12 p.m. until 3 a.m. with little to no breaks. Every time I walk into the library, I know I will see half of my class going through the same struggle that I am. Yes, us nursing majors basically camp out in the library, but we promise you that we do not consider it fun.
4. The struggle of having non-nursing major friends. 
Everyone has that one friend that has the easier work load from a different major. Often, we roll our eyes and say the phrase, "Business majors" as they sit in the library and support us with their presence, but they are sitting on their laptops on Facebook. We love you for the support but secretly envy your free time.
5. The struggle of being an over achiever.
Most nursing majors can be classified as perfectionists or over achievers because all we really want is to be successful. We want to finish this, and we want to finish with an A. If we are pulling all-nighters every night, we are going to make sure it counts. Although other majors may not understand our need to make 1000 flashcards for each lecture, or to print out every unlabeled diagram of the human body to label, we need this to succeed.
6. The struggle of finding time to sleep.
Before becoming a nursing major, I never realized how lucky I was to be in bed by a reasonable time. I never drank coffee, and I never had the struggle of getting four hours of sleep, going through a full day of classes including lab, and doing it all over again, and somehow not looking like a walking zombie.
7. The struggle of having one bad grade.
Every nursing student can relate to the sometimes over dramatic reaction you get when you receive a less than satisfactory grade on an exam. Hours in the library did not obviously matter because this test was close to impossible. We often think that this one bad test is going to affect our ability to become a nurse.
8. The struggle of no longer having a social life.
Don't get us wrong, as much as we would love to be out with all of our friends having a blast, we have far too much work piled up to even think about going out. We would love to spend all of the time we use studying at a social gathering, but sometimes that's not possible. Yes, we do go out occasionally, and no, we do not lock our selves in our rooms and study forever. It is just that sometimes we really just need sleep.
9. The struggle of the question "why not pre-med?"
Although, all medicine is intriguing and all medical professionals should be respected, nurses are the main caregivers for the patient. We want to watch the health of the patient evolve, and we don't care what messy bed, or body fluids we would have to clean up to reach the goal. Also to be honest, not all of us want to spend most of our lives being in school.
10. The struggle of never actually having any of your homework done.
Even though we are in the library every minute of the day, we really are never fully done doing our homework. We could be done every worksheet, or written paper for every subject, but we still have the heavy burden on our shoulders of the insane amount of material we need to engrave in our memory.
11. You are convinced that you know everything about the human body, but there's always more.
Stacks on stacks of lecture notes, handouts, and labs and you would think you know a lot about the human body. Don't get me wrong, it's amazing how much information we have been able to fit in our heads over the course of a short time. There always seems to be more information, as soon as you think you know something, there are 1000 minor details you never even learned yet.
And through all the struggles, nothing beats the love for the major.
