Word on the Street Issue 20, April 2022

Nathan is a member of Interfaith Sanctuary’s Project Recovery. He works as a CNA and is studying to be a nurse.

“In the past year I’ve done a lot of getting my ducks in a row. I had to get my CNA license to get certification so I could go back to work. I had to get all my FAFSA stuff together so I could go back to school and I’ve been taking classes. I’m taking a semester off but I’ll be back to school in the summer semester. Other than that I’ve just been working, saving money, and hanging out with my kid. I’m very proud of myself.”

An excerpt of Nathan’s writing about his journey back to school:

“I have known for a long time now that I want to become a nurse. It is just going to take some time to get there. I made sense of my purpose when I was younger. I have always wanted to know how things work. It makes me happy to help people and with my learning I will help people a lot.

I enjoy learning about how the human body works. I have come to understand that the human body is built like a big robot. We have our brain which is like a CPU always storing and moving information. Then you have the lungs, this helps us breathe. Then we go down the line to the heart, a big complex compressor. Without the motion of the heart the oil can not move. Then you have your liver which cleans the oil. The kidneys keep the oil pure. They also clean the blood and take out toxins and nutrients for our bodies. Then we go to the lower intestines. This provides a place to separate and break up the food we eat. The large intestines take the nutrients from our food and absorb it into our bodies like vitamins.”