Almost There...

written by Kaitlyn Yule ('10)...Nursing major from Raleigh, North Carolina

I am a junior nursing student and a varsity women's soccer team member. My life is pretty much consumed by my major and my sport. I spend sixteen hours a week performing hands-on clinicals at MetroHealth Hospital in downtown Cleveland, and that's simply a required addition to the thirteen hours of classes I attend weekly.

But, despite the often chaotic schedule, I could not see myself doing anything else. For as long as I can remember I have wanted to be right smack dab in the middle of an inner city level one trauma center dealing with emergency situations, life or death decisions, and gathering one of a kind life experiences which translate into jaw dropping stories. These past couple of weeks in clinicals has been a little more extraordinary than the usual...with three births, an emergency cesarean section to deliver a dying baby, and the not so everyday occurrence of saving my four month old patient from choking to death.

This Wednesday I had more than I could have asked for while shadowing in the emergency department of MetroHealth, an eighty-one bed unit with eight trauma bays, its very own psych department, and a one of a kind life flight division that provides services to the entire state of Ohio. I was finally where I have always envisioned and where I have worked so hard to be. As the first trauma of the day was life flighted in, the staff prepared for her arrival. The patient was a middle-aged woman who had been struck by two separate vehicles. She had numerous fractures, no pulse in either of her legs, and internal bleeding. Here it was right in front of me, my first trauma and it all happened so quickly. It was organized chaos of doctors and nurses, yelling orders and status updates, frantically trying to find the answer to save this woman's life. Before I knew it she was stabilized and transferred to radiology to have a CT scan to try and find where her massive internal hermorrhage was located. All that's left after a situation such as this is a mess of a room and a collection of emotions that leave you in complete awe of what just happened. The adrenaline that comes from any emergency situation is indescribable.

As a nursing student, I still have so far to go before I get to the day where I'm the nurse working that trauma, but I can finally see that the end is in sight. I have just over a year left and I have worked so hard and sacrificed so much. There is no longer a doubt in my mind that I am doing the right thing. These past few years have been hard, with sleepless nights and days where I've just wanted to give up, but it's all about to pay off. I'm in the final stretch now and can't wait to finally reach the long awaited finish line.

There is another passion in my life that has absolutely nothing to do with sick people, traumatic injuries, or nursing in general. I have played soccer my entire life, never with an end in sight. But it has finally hit me that I have only one season left to play competitively. This fall marks the beginning of the end of something I have known and taken for granted my entire life. We have begun our spring season practices and it has only heightened my awareness that I'm going to be a senior next year. Going into this final season I have such high expectations for myself, and I feel this is my last chance to help the team achieve what I know capable. I have seen not only the team change, but I have also witnessed the entire program completely evolve. The caliber of each individual player is unlike anything we have had in the past years I have been here at Case. A large part of this transformation comes from our current freshmen and sophomore classes. Our freshmen class this year is remarkable. They have so much dedication and work so hard to raise not only their personal level of play but also the team's level. I have this one final season left before I hang up the jersey, but I can truly say I wouldn't want to play my last season with any other group of girls. I'm excited and nervous to begin this final season and also a little jealous knowing that this is the end for me but not for them. The dedication, leadership, intelligence, and athleticism of the girls in the classes below me will impact Case Women's soccer for years. I am jealous that I will not be a part of the future of this team, which I have no doubt consists of conference championships and multiple trips to the NCAA tournament. At the same time, I am proud to say that I am here in the midst of it, that I have a hand in what will some day be known as the powerhouse women's soccer program at Case Western Reserve University.

The Argentine Adventure

As reported by Anna Selser (2012, Biomedical Engineering)

This spring break, I had two options. Option one: I could return home to Iowa and sit around my house while all my other friends were busy attending school. Option two: I could find an exciting alternative. While Iowa is a lively, exhilarating, fantastic place, I decided to check out a place I had never been. Conveniently, Case offers spring break study abroad trips, and it just so happened that the bioethics department offers a class in Buenos Aires, so my decision was made.

Although I was initially a little apprehensive about not knowing anyone else on the trip, we bonded quickly. It probably helped that Allysen (Case junior soccer player and former study abroader) put in a good word for me with her friends. Our first day there we discovered that Argentines are obsessed with dogs. Everyone has a dog, I have literally never seen so many dogs in my life. Small dogs, big dogs, dogs on leashes, dogs free, dogs in the airport, dogs in kiosks (convenience stores), dogs in dog parks, they're seriously everywhere. The second thing we discovered that day was that they have no problem with PDA. If you walk through a park you literally see couples on top of each other making out. Apparently this is because everyone lives with their parents until they're married, so they have nowhere to go besides parks. Third, empanadas are delicious and they are the equivalent of pizza. There are pizza and empanada fast food places that will deliver. Pure deliciousness. And the final thing we learned that day, some of us the hard way, is that Argentines like to eat the organs of animals. A few boys unfortunately thought they were ordering a platter of meat, and realized halfway through the meal that it was a platter with a little bit of chicken, intestines, liver, and kidneys. It was an interesting first day.

Buenos Aires was beautiful. It's a big city encompassing different neighborhoods, all known for something different. It's interesting to look at because there is a huge contrast between new and old. You will pass a building that has a beautiful marble facade and the building next door across the street might look like somewhere you would never want to enter. Another interesting feature is the amount of green space in an urban setting. There are the most beautiful parks, almost every block. And there are trees everywhere and not just small trees you might see lining streets in America, but big ones. Some streets even have a natural canopy as a result of these.

Although we spent a huge chunk of time in class, we were able to do some awesome things. We were lucky enough to go to a soccer game, La Boca against Indenpendiente, a huge rival game. I've been to professional games abroad before where soccer is a bigger deal than it is in the US, but this was seriously amazing. Apparently right before we got to the stadium there was a riot in the streets, on our side of the stadium, and there was tear gas and police with batons and everything. Unfortunately, we arrived too late to witness this, but the team spirit was amazing. It was an away game for La Boca but there were enough people there to completely fill at least a fourth of the stadium. Everyone is constantly singing songs, they have huge flags they hold up, it was such an experience. And the devotion never died, even though La Boca lost, there was never a decline in enthusiasm.

Besides soccer we did a number of other things. Shopping, of course, was awesome because the exchange rate was fantastic. We shopped in stores and a number of craft type fairs with goods made by Argentines themselves. We also went to a great art museum call Malba, saw the beautiful Japanese Gardens, went to the cemetery with Evita's tomb, and saw a tango show in Buenos Aires' oldest cafe.

It's hard to sum up ten days in a short blog, but hopefully you can get an idea of the amazing time I had. It was cool to see a different culture, it was beautiful, and I had a fantastic time. I'm glad I was able to meet new people, Argentines and Case students, and I completely recommend the trip to anyone looking to get away next year.

Alumni Update - Bridget Mason

This post is by Bridget Mason, a 2008 Case Grad.  I had the privilege of coaching Bridget

her senior season.  She was the heart and soul of the 2007 team, the type of player that teammates play to honor.  As a centerback, she was the backbone of our defensive line and played all but 4 minutes the entire season.  She also scored the most important goal of the season against Rochester on her Senior Night.  She was a star in a game that was largely a defensive battle.  We earned a corner kick, much against the run of play, and Bridget, like Bridget does, came through for her team by finding the ball in the air and heading it past the Rochester keeper.  She then rallied her team for the remainder of the second half and for two exhausting overtime periods, thwarting everything Rochester threw at us.  It was so fitting of Bridget and her career at Case.  She is the most competitive and passionate player I have ever coached, an inspiration to all of us involved in the program.

Nine months out of college has seemed like nine years.  I somehow imagined that I would have infinite amounts of time and that life would be considerably less hectic than it was in college. Wrong.  I especially misjudged how great it was to have the opportunity to be a part of a team, and how much I would miss it.

My soccer career at Case had a somewhat rocky start.  I had trouble making the transition from high school to college, and started off my freshman season with mono, and decided that maybe the whole soccer commitment wasn't something I could handle.  My dorm room sophomore year had a view directly over the turf field, which made it especially difficult to pretend like I didn't wish I could still be playing.  By the end of their season, sophomore year, I decided that I couldn't live without soccer.  It was driving me crazy not being able to play and those sentiments far outweighed whatever it was that made me think I should quit in the first place. My junior and senior seasons were fantastic - not necessarily in the traditional sense of having a very winning team, but in the sense that I was able to escape totally into the game or practice almost every time I played.  It was as if nothing else mattered - tests, homework, job applications, everything else went on the backburner.  On top of that great escape, I made some of the best friends I had in college with the other girls on the team.  I doubt I'll ever have another experience like this one, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of it.

I now work as an AmeriCorps VISTA (volunteer in service to America), and run a college-access mentoring program through Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA).  I recruit Drexel and UPenn students to serve essentially as college counselors in two of the West Philly public high schools. The students we work with have often been deprived of an even moderately decent public education and have constantly been subjected to less-than-ideal educational environments.  We work to help them formulate plans for graduation and expose them to a variety of post-graduation opportunities.  Although this job has been extremely challenging, I love it and am incredibly lucky to have been exposed to many different, and often ignored, perspectives on the state of public education in the U.S.

I miss Case and the soccer team very much, but I am finding new passions and am fortunate to have the foundations that my time on that Case turf with my coach and teammates provided me.

Pictures

Top (L to R): Bridget Mason, Kelly Goris, and Katie Skillin at the Annual Halloween Practice

Middle: Bridget playing her senior year versus Carnegie Mellon

Bottom: The 2007 team in downtown Chicago (also Bridget's hometown)