When I was a little kid, everyone always asked the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Typical answers ranged from the cute little boy in the corner saying "fireman" or the popular girl up in the front proclaiming "doctor!" Me, I wanted to be just like my mom. Me, the shy little girl mixed among the rest quietly said "nurse."

I guess you can say people saw it coming that either my sister or I would become the next nurse in the household. It just so happened to be me. But to me, my mom had the least bit of influence on me choosing nursing. I get the same question over and over again: "What made you choose nursing?" Honestly, my greatest influences were TV shows. As cliche as that sounds, it's true. I grew up watching several medical shows like "ER," "Grey's Anatomy," and "Chicago Med." Everyone who watched those chose kept and eye on the doctors, and only the doctors, but me, I watched everyone in the background; I watched the people who made everything happen. Everyone sees nurses as the background or the bones of it all, and in a way that's true, but there's so much more to it.

Entering my freshman year of college immediately my teachers said "Buckle up and get ready for the ride." Me being me, I was like "Okay, yay nursing school!" A couple months later I began to laugh at myself about how naive I was. I remember one of my anatomy teachers telling the class that we are basically in medical school now and that we are about to learn everything that people in medical school learn. That to me felt so empowering because that proved to me, when I'm an RN, that I can help incoming interns and help them learn the ropes.

Again, back to the famous overused question "Why nursing?" Simple answer, I want to help people. I believe that patients have a more intimate relationship with their nurses than their doctors, because they're with them every step of the way. I'm one of those types of people that I care more about others than I do myself, and I think that is one of the most important characteristics of a nurse. To be a nurse you have to be absolutely selfless.

Selflessness is a rare quality to find among people. Nursing is probably one of the most underpaid and under appreciated professions out there. Yeah, I mean some nursing jobs are paid extremely well, but for the amount of knowledge they possess, why is there such an enormous pay difference among doctors and nurses? That's another question I get a lot, "Why don't you just go to medical school?" Frankly, I don't really want to at the moment, I happen to like being in the background and being the backbone to the patient. I like making everything happen and being there along the patients journey.

So no, I didn't choose nursing for the money. I didn't choose it for me, I chose it for the hundreds and maybe even thousands of the people I will help save.