#goingcarats

the words rush out of your mouth faster than you mind can register the situation. three weeks after the start of nursing school and you’re already diving into the first week of clinicals to fill the deed of any nurse out there: taking care of a patient. something that felt so far away. you guess three weeks go by a lot faster when you’re playing catch up.

your worries continue to muffle under your breath, not wanting to spread the negativity in the reach of your best friend, seokmin, who sat in the passenger seat beside you. to your surprise, seokmin isn’t as frantic as you are. other times, or rather, most of the time, it would be the other way around. yet this morning when you drove to pick him up, putting his best foot froward with his hands securely gripping his backpack on his shoulders and his lunch box strapped around the sides.

“don’t say that!” seokmin’s soothing voice brings you back to the dreadful reality as you look up from the stirring wheel and find yourself staring at the entrance of the hospital. if the whines weren’t enough, one glance at the grimace on your face expressed the feeling of distaste that was the consequence of today. “it’s our first day, they’re not expecting us to be perfect. and hey, you have me!” seokmin’s hands pounce his chest at the statement; his gesture finally erupts a small smile from you, admiring how pridefully silly he looks.

seokmin was actually the reason you applied to the program in the first place. if you were being completely honest, you wouldn’t pinpoint nursing as a career path that he would choose, but you also wouldn’t put it past him. count on the nicest person you know to take one of the most demanding professions! you admired his determination and hell, did he sure have a lot of it. he wasn’t one to get the best grades to begin with or most clinical experience; in fact, he had none prior to today.

“sometimes it’s not what you do,” you remember him saying such a phrase during one of your traditional pizzeria nights you two would occasionally have. even though your time spent together was lessened back then. “it’s the dedication that takes you there.”

staring at the seokmin before you, finally dressed head to toe in the uniform of his dreams, proudly where the school patch in the right side and stethoscope hanging around his neck, you can verify the truth in that statement.

seconds pass and your body starts to relax, letting your back slide down the driver’s seat and getting yourself comfortable in the snugness of your warm jacket before you have to take it off. “you really think i’ll do okay?”

“no,” you wait before reaching out to throw your sunglass case at him in hopes that he has more to say. “you’ll do better than okay, you’re gonna do flippity flipper fantastic!”

number fifteen of ways seokmin’s antics that were sure to brighten your day with no fail: making up the most absurd alliterations. it was true, it gets you every time and today was no different. “well, if you say so,” your giggles draw out in the midst of packing up the necessities in your scrub pockets, now keeping a smile on your face thanks to your best friend.

the clock is ticking and the next thing you know, you’re getting your stuff and locking your car, waiting up front of the hospital. and right when you needed him, seokmin was already beside you, intertwining your fingers with his. “ready?”

by now, people would think you be sick of being around seokmin due to his over-enthusiastic nature. silly of them to think you’d ever get tired of staring off into bliss just looking at his smile; and you get the privilege of being by his side all day. you can never compete with him when it comes to that, so you give your best reassuring grin and grip his hand tighter. “now i am.”