My Starting Point – Chelsea Ruiz
Hello Carrington Flock, my name is Chelsea Ruiz and I’m excited to say that Carrington College is the Starting Point for my Health Care Career! I started the Medical Assisting program at the Tucson campus about a month ago and I’m excited that, as a student blogger, I’m going to be able to share my experiences with you as I move through the program.
Who Am I?
I was born in Wisconsin. I was 8 when we moved to Tucson; I think my mom was tired of the winters. I’m 22 now. My husband Alex and I have been together three years; we got married on October 22nd last year. I have two children; my daughter Lillian is 7 years old and my baby boy, Riot, is just 4 months old.
Pretty much all my free time is devoted to my kids; my daughter is in Girl Scouts and I’m heavily involved in that with her; I go to all the meetings and we just got done with cookie season a few weeks ago; that took up a bunch of time! We all like to cook; when Alex has a day off, we’ll cook a big meal together. I really like to bake cookies and cakes, but I’m determined to find a way to do that healthily!
Why I’m Writing This Blog
I feel like my story can help people; it’s a lot easier to come straight out of high school and go to college. But my story is about someone who didn’t think they were going to get anywhere in life. Other than my husband, who talked me into going to college, I’ve got no real support system. I was pretty much going nowhere with my life, until I decided that I wanted to make a change and do this.
Why I Went Back To School
I dropped out of high school when I was 15 to have my daughter Lillian. I’d always dreamed of working in the health care field, but it always seemed out of reach for me. Nobody really pushed me to do anything, so I just worked at Circle K. I guess I just kind of assumed I was going to work at Circle K forever. But then they let me go; it was kind of an eye opener. I decided then that I had to get a career.
The first thing I had to do was get my GED, so I studied for 6 months to get it. With my GED completed, I was actually planning on going to another school, but one day we were passing the Carrington campus, so I said to my husband that I’m going to go in and talk to them.
Why I Chose Health Care
When my mom got pregnant with my little sister, she would watch all those TV shows like “A Baby Story” so I got really into OBGYN and anything about pregnancy. I just found it all really interesting. Then when I had my first daughter, I got so wrapped up in it all that I decided I’d like to work around pregnant women some day. But as I said, back then it always seemed out of reach. Carrington and Medical Assisting is really just a first step for me; eventually I’d like to work in a birthing center.
I’d like to be a registered nurse some day, but that takes a lot of schooling and a lot of commitment; it’s not something I’m ready for right now. I haven’t been to school in so long, I thought it would be a good idea to get used to going to school again before going into Nursing. I thought Medical Assisting would be something I could handle, and be a good first step towards my goal.
Going Back Has Been Tough…But Worth It!
The work has been really hard, but I have a good instructor for FA100; he’s helped me understand all the things I’d completely forgotten – making sure I get everything. It’s a lot of work, but I’m pretty committed to it so it’s actually not as bad as I thought it would be.
Thanks for reading my first blog! I hope you stay with me as I share my random thoughts over the next nine or ten months!