Introduction
Hi, my name is Melissa Schwartz Beck. I bet you want to hear about how I became who I am today. So . . .
Here’s the nitty gritty, my mother would tell you that I was destined to be a nurse. One of my first memories as a child was running around the yard with a nurse’s cap made from typewriter paper on my head, a red cape around my neck, and a goody bag filled with gauze, tape, bandages, ace wrap, and my mother’s sewing needles. While I love animals, at the tender age of 4, they did not love me. For some reason they didn’t understand the importance of immunizations. As I grew older, I conducted educational classes for my friends on how to wrap their animals with ace wrap (a common practice in my neighborhood). I also served as a lay midwife to my cat Taffy and her nine litters of kittens.
In my teen years, I retired from animal care and became a hospital volunteer. My next big step was entering East Carolina University as a nursing major. Four short years later, I graduated and moved to Missouri both on the same day. Since the first batch of kittens, I knew I wanted to be a labor and delivery nurse; however, my future employer didn’t consider that as experience and placed me in the Intensive Care Unit (I don’t understand the logic there either). After one Missouri winter, we moved back home to New Bern, North Carolina. At home, I continued to work in critical care for another 2 years. Having two premature babies in less than a year provided me with lots of personal mother/baby experience and in 1998 I finally made my way to labor and delivery as a nurse and not a patient!
In 2002, I ventured out as a contract nurse working aboard the military base as a nurse educator in women’s health. At this time, I also decided to go back to school. Interestingly, the day I graduated with my Masters Degree in Nursing from the University of Phoenix, I was laid-off due to budget cuts. That’s okay, I took the summer off and started teaching at ECU in the fall of 2004. Of course, you know they placed me in critical care, but after 2 years, I returned to women’s health again.
In 2009, I started on my PhD in nursing at ECU. I chose courses in English to complete my cognates (because I love to write and want to be a better writer). Keep in mind when reading that I am a nurse first and foremost; Therefore, I’m still learning passive versus active voice and commas have a place other than where you take a breath.
In 2014, I finally finished my PhD. My dissertation focused on how nurse educators use digital stories in the classroom. This was a natural fit as I love acting, creating educational videos, and finding creative ways to use videos to teach. As far as going back to school for my post-doctorate, I’m going to focus on a new research project and enjoy my hobbies: Writing, acting, gardening, and painting.
And that would have made a wonderful ending but in 2021, I made the decision to jump off the pirate ship and look for hidden treasures. Where was I going? I didn’t know.
In a funny way, I think the song Sail Away, by Styx, captures that moment in time best – just omit the alien abduction – I found a much better ending. (Hint: It’s not all about me!)
Well, that sums up my life, minus my graduation from Smiley’s Clown School, I’ll save that story for another day.
Sincerely,
Melissa : )
References
All mixed. (2023, July 18). Sail Away. Retrieved April 26, 2024 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5MAg_yWsq8
Beck, M.S. (2021, January 22). The A/R/Tographer’s teaching philosophy: The teaching version. Time Traveling Nurse. https://timetravelingnurse.blog/2021/01/23/the-a-r-tographers-teaching-philosophy-the-storied-version/
Beck, M.S. (2022, July 20). What drives the A/R/Tographer? https://timetravelingnurse.blog/2022/07/20/what-drives-the-a-r-tograhper/
Beck, M.S. (2022, July 21). Finding the A/R/Tograhper: The journey begins by turning on the light. https://timetravelingnurse.blog/2022/07/21/finding-the-a-r-tograhper-the-journey-begins-by-turning-on-and-into-the-light/
Goodno, C. (2020). Intergalactic Pirate Nurse of the Stars. [Commissioned Painting]. Christina Kyleen
Special Thanks
Annah Schwartz Howell, web manager and editor for About Me.
Time Traveling Nurse 