Benjamin Zapanta Ragasa III

What inspired me to start nursing was when I volunteered at a nursing home back when I was in high school. I was 14 years old at the time, and it was touching for the residents to see a young guy in high school coming to visit out of his own heart. I didn't do much; all I did was play dominoes, listen to music from their generations, and watch movies with them, but the companionship of someone visiting was touching to them. That pushed me to become a nurse because I saw how passionate and caring the nurses were to the residents. Both of my parents were nurses, so that was a big inspiration to me also. For me, the biggest change I went through was realizing the importance of community. Entering nursing school was a big and scary thing, so when I got there, I thought, 'I'm just going to push through, not talk to anyone, go to class, come home, and do my tests so I can be in and out of school.' As I progressed, I realized the importance of friends and building relationships with others in my class and cohort because they are a support system. You can't go to nursing school without a strong support system because it's stressful and tough. I learned the value of community because we were all there to help each other in nursing school. My cohort was one of the unique ones because it started right when the COVID-19 pandemic began. During my second semester, we had to stop going to hospitals for clinical rotations because everything transitioned to virtual learning. It was challenging but taught students the importance of having good motivation for their careers. On the first day, a professor told us to grab a piece of paper and write our motivation as to why we were in nursing school. Every time I go through something hard or I'm stressed out, I think back to that motivation.