In 1986, my senior year at Haughton High School, I was handed a book called “Hold On To The Moments.” The last page of the book was entitled “The Future.” Each senior Buccaneer student in my graduating class was told to contemplate our future and to answer the five questions on the last page of the book. The five questions asked us to describe how we saw ourselves in one year, five years, and ten years; what our views were on marriage; and what were our career goals.
Apparently, I saw myself “going to college” in one year, and “teaching, and taking night and summer classes” in five years. In ten years, I saw myself as a “Nurse…”, and I thought my career goal was to be a “Teacher and Nurse.”
Looking back at this page I literally LOL. I mean, at 17 I didn’t know my future plans for the weekend; much less my future plans for a career. So, how ironic is it that 15 years after writing those visions of my future, I was teaching nursing, and 25 years after writing those visions of my future, I am Dean of one of the largest nursing programs in the United States. How did this happen?
I mean, think about it for a second. How did a girl raised in the 1970’s and 1980’s, in the deep south, where teachers told young girls, “you are going to make someone a good wife one day” or “you will be such a good homemaker”, or “good thing you can type fast, you might become a secretary to a corporate executive, if your lucky” even begin to envision a future that involved higher education?
Although my answer to these questions is not politically correct or popular, it is the truth, and must be said. The only thing that enabled me to enroll in my first college course and then to apply to one of the most challenging nursing programs in Louisiana, was knowing that the same God who created the universe, created me. I also knew, from a very early age, that the same God who placed the Earth in exactly the right place in space for the Earth to flourish, placed me in exactly the right place for me to flourish.
I grew up attending Sunday School at Haughton Baptist Church from as early as I can remember, and I learned that God is a good, loving father who has a great plan for my life. I learned to seek God with all of my heart and listen for His voice to give me instruction. I learned that when I mess up, and trust me I do daily, that the same God who forgave Peter for betraying Him, would forgive me. I learned that I am not ultimately in control of my life. I learned that God’s timing is always perfect, even when I don’t see it or feel it. I learned the importance of humility, and that I am worth no less or no more than any other person. I learned that although bad things may happen to me, either because of my own bad decisions, or the bad decisions of someone else, that God can use those things for my benefit. I learned that the more I seek Him, the better my life becomes.
So, essentially learning about God and growing up knowing Him, I learned that I was worthy and capable of doing whatever He had planned for me- including graduating from college. If I were to write anything else, it would not be the truth.
So, when I am asked what do young women need to be successful? My answer is they first need to know that the creator of the universe loves them. That is life changing.
In a world that tells young women they can only be something or someone if they are pretty enough, smart enough, good enough, or wealthy enough, women need to know that THEY ARE ENOUGH.
Isn’t that part of the message that Jesus came to deliver? That we all, including women, are worthy of Him stopping at a well to talk; worthy of him writing in the sand to a group of accusers; worthy of being His followers; and most of all worthy of His love and grace. If a woman knows she is valued and loved she will never let others’ opinions of her, or her own doubts, hinder her from achieving her divine destiny.
I like the word Destiny. The word destiny tells us that someone or some higher power has a plan for each of us. My destiny was influenced by a lot of people and events placed in my life at exactly the right moments.
For example, in my sophomore year of High School, when I had not even considered college, a male transfer student from Michigan said to me “Dana, you should go to college. You are really smart. I will go be a doctor and you can be my nurse.” And I said: “ok, sounds good.” That is it. Nothing dramatic. It was just the first time I had anyone tell me that I was smart enough to go to college. That one statement made me think about going to college, and to save the scores from my sophomore ACT exam, just in case I might need them one day.
In my first year of nursing school, and my first time going to the hospital as an associate degree student nurse, I gave a patient a complete bed bath then realized at the end of the bath, that the patient was deceased. Talk about humbling! Today, when I tell this story to nursing students you can see the relief on their faces. They know that if I can bathe a patient who was clearly not alive and still graduate, they can too!
Although I have way too many destiny moments than I can share in this article I do know that any commendable journey in life cannot be taken alone. That our life-book is divinely inspired and that each person we interact with makes a contribution to our book.
My parents wrote a lot of pages in my life-book, probably the first 18 chapters. As a child I always felt loved, cared for, and protected. My mother taught me to see the best in others, to enjoy what God gives us, and to not be so serious all the time. My father taught me to speak my mind, forgive quickly when I am hurt, to fish, to hunt, to drive a stick-shift, to change my oil, to shoot a gun, to change a tire, to work hard, to take care of what you have been given, and most importantly to remember that I am never any better than anyone else. Family, softball coaches, preachers, nurses, teachers, educators, leaders, faculty, patients, students, and my children wrote the next 30 chapters of my book.
In the past 16 years, since I completed my master degree as a women’s health nurse practitioner, nurse practitioners have gained increasing acceptance in the local healthcare community. However, we continue to meet obstacles which hinder us from being able to deliver all the healthcare services that their education, license and certification entitle us. Although the majority of states allow nurse practitioners to practice to the full extent of their education and license, Louisiana has been less than accepting. This year, a group of Northwestern State University’s Doctor of Nursing Practice students, who were enrolled in my Healthcare Policy course, traveled to Baton Rouge to help educate Louisiana policy makers about this long-needed change. Seeing those students on the steps of the capital, was a destiny moment.
Another destiny moment happened in the process of earning my final degree at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, while was raising two daughters, working two jobs, and driving to New Orleans every other weekend. After 3 years in the doctoral program, I had completed all of my doctorate course work, and only lacked completion of my dissertation to graduate; this should have only taken a year or two to wrap up. However, a woman named Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and rocked my world. In one weekend, my school was flooded, I lost contact with my professors, and asked myself, “what am I going to do to complete this degree?”
With the help of some inspirational people, I decided to perform my research at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, rather than New Orleans, since no one was available. Six months later, I received a phone call to come to New Orleans and meet with the new Dean. My mother rode with me and we entered what looked like a war zone. New Orleans was hardly recognizable. The National Guard was on every street. I entered my school building and mold was growing 7 feet up the walls. I had entered what looked like an oxygen tent to speak to the Dean, who looked as if he had been fighting in this war, on the front battle line. The Dean politely and professionally explained to me how the research I conducted in Shreveport would not count, because the graduation process required me going through the research approval process in New Orleans. He graciously agreed to help me find a new major professor and to re-start my research. Although I understood educational processes, because I was teaching undergraduate nursing at the time, I was devastated.
When I returned to my car, started to drive home, and could finally speak, I told my mom, “I don’t think I can do this anymore”. She was shocked, I don’t think she had ever seen me actually contemplating quitting something that was so meaningful. She looked at me and said, “…it is your choice Dana Carol, but your daddy and I did not raise a quitter. With God nothing is impossible. Time will pass by anyway. So you can quit and always regret it, or you can work hard, finish this, and one day tell your students who are wanting to quit nursing school, how you wanted to quit one day in New Orleans, but you didn’t, and they shouldn’t either. Who knows, some of those students may be the next Florence Nightingales. And remember baby, it is no always about you.”
Although I didn’t receive those words from my mother with a good attitude that day, and I am pretty sure I had a smart mouth with her, I knew in my heart she was right. I spoke very little on the way home, and instead I tried to drown my sorrows in Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Rick Springfield music. Two years later, in 2009, I was honored to be awarded LSUHSC New Orleans doctorate student of the year. I graduated, and then I hopped on a plane to the island of Malta to present my dissertation at the International Caring Conference. Mama was right, time passed anyway. With God nothing is impossible. And, I am pretty sure I have already taught the next Florence Nightingales!
I hope I am an example of what a small-southern town girl can achieve if she listens to God and perseveres. Yes, education is important for everyone, but for women, education is often the vehicle to achieve their destiny. If I am anything, I am an example of how education, and persevering in the educational system, can broaden your mind, and help you achieve your visions. Currently, I am working hard to change the nursing educational system at Northwestern State University College of Nursing and School of Allied Health, in Shreveport, to be a place where students feel challenged to be their best, where they learn to be professionals, where they are cared for but not coddled, where they feel their thinking expand, where they learn to care for others, and where they achieve the visions they have written in their senior books.
Dr. Dana Clawson, DNS, WHNP-BC
Dean
Northwestern State University
College of Nursing and School of Allied Health
