"You'd better pray that you meet some pretty great people in there because you're about to have the craziest four years of your life. You'll need all the hugs, laughs, and support you can get." This is the first piece of advice I received when I was eighteen and so incredibly excited because I just got accepted into nursing school. "It can't be that bad," I thought to myself. Oh, boy, was I wrong. I found out so quickly why I was told to appreciate every single person that nursing school introduced to me and I'm thankful I learned it so fast because it made me cherish the friends I made so much more.

They say it takes a village to do a lot of things: raise a family, build a business, or even go through a really hard time. I learned really fast that it takes a village to get through nursing school too. No amount of strong-will, independence, or motivation can get you through the bad days alone. You'll soon realize that things are better when they're shared with the people who get it— studying, coffee breaks, and even the long three hour long lectures.

Picture yourself in a room filled with forty of the smartest, funniest, and most compassionate people you've ever met—and that's exactly what a nursing school family is. I'll forever be thankful for every single one of them. To every person that I've met in the craziness that nursing school has brought me, I want you to know:

We will miss this someday.

Our very first day of clinical we were told to take all the pictures we can during these next couple of years because we will want them to look back on at graduation. We groaned because it was our first day and graduation seems so dang far away, but we started taking the pictures anyway. The pictures in our lab coats, the pictures of our stethoscopes, and the pictures of our coffee dates. The pictures with the "6:00 A.M." timestamp of our tired eyes with the caption "it's too early for this." The selfies in the hospital and the funny pictures we take of our friends during the late nights in the library. The day will come when these pictures are all we have. We will all go our separate ways, and we will look back on them and smile because they showcase the most important four years of our lives. I am certain we will miss all of this someday, and that's enough motivation to get through the bad days.

I couldn't get through this without you.

Nursing school friends are different from other friends. They know what it's like to fail the tests and have the meltdowns. They understand how tired you are. They know exactly what you're going through when you text them at 1:00 A.M. with the words "this is so unfair." They understand why you're sad or frustrated and why you don't want to talk to anyone. They're the people who you don't have to spend ten minutes explaining the medical terms and abbreviations to when you're telling them stories. Nursing school friends are also your biggest support system. They understand how big of a deal passing a class is while your other friends don't understand why you're so excited about a 75%. They know the words to say when you are happy or sad because they've been there. They are selfless and they actually want to see you succeed more than anybody else in your life.

You have given me some of the best memories.

When you spend a lot of time with people, you're bound to have some pretty fun times. But, when you spend every single day in hours of lectures and entire clinical shifts with the same people, you make some of the best memories you could ever ask for. Nursing school friends are the only people who are there to give you a high five when you give your first ever insulin shot. They're the ones to help with your first bed bath on a patient with your shaking hands and nervous voice. They stand there with you in awe as they give you the motivation to clean out your first ever wound. They're the people who you cry to the first time you lose a patient or see something that normal people would never have to worry about seeing in their entire lifetime. They can make you laugh during awkward situations and smile during the hard times, and those are some of the best memories you'll ever have when you look back.

So, nursing school friends, thank you. I've met some of my best friends in the entire world through nursing school. I read somewhere that every single person you meet is meant to touch your life, and I know that every single person I meet during these four years are going to help shape me into the nurse that I'll be someday.