By Paolo Jereza
In a college overflowing with valedictorians, student leaders, and overachievers, it comes to no surprise that a student nurse may find themself questioning their uniqueness amidst the company of so many remarkable people.
On a day to day basis, crippling with academic, social, and personal responsibilities, student nurses find themselves battling a course so physically demanding, emotionally challenging, and mentally exhausting that they tell themselves this one simple phrase just to get through the day – take it one step at a time. But what happens when they repeat a step backwards? This is a story of one student nurse who considers herself ”not that different” from anyone else. Meet Marian Ledesma, a girl from Bacolod City, a girl who likes to knit and crochet, simply put- she is the girl who survived.
Marian considers her years at WVSU-CON not that unusual from any other student nurse, except for the fact she started her college journey during admission in 2020 and ended it with her pin in 2025. From Batch Zephyr to Batch Avani, she faced trials and tribulations unlike any other student nurse, a true personification of the question: “Am I really a patient or am I a nurse?” During her first to second years in WVSU-CON, she was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and Grave’s disease, alongside the comorbities that accompany both illnesses.
Faced with the dilemma of taking care of her health and taking care of her patients, the main responsibility of a student nurse is to put others first and nurse them back to health, hence stems her first internal conflict – prioritizing her health while healing other people. Simple tasks such as waking up, walking under the heat of the sun, working in hot environments, and dealing with shaky hands are all too familiar struggles she faces on a daily basis. Living with two illnesses is not easy feat, but at the expense of also nursing patients with other illnesses takes the heart of a hero.
Just after being capped in 2022, Marian faced her second internal conflict – pursuing the next two years of nursing at WVSU-CON. Like many of its student nurses, people in this college often find themselves pondering their own character, questioning if they have the chops to survive the next few semesters without completely giving up. With lecture days and RLE duty piling up on top of each other, it takes only the best of the best to not crack under the pressure of intense requirements.
This is no different to her, thinking if quitting once and for all is the best option. As someone who has been struggling with her own health for two years since admission, she finds it difficult to let go of the constant thought that she is unfit to help others just because she sees herself as unfit and unhealthy. To many, taking a leave of absence (LOA) is the last thing anyone would ask for, but it was this leap of faith that she took which helped her push through her last two years.
With the fear of being left behind, both socially and academically, anyone who has undergone LOA knows the mental toll it takes to see others, your classmates, batchmates, and most importantly, your friends, move on without you. Taking a step back from school and missing out on the moments when your old batch bonds and becomes closer, overcoming challenges together such as case presentations, exams, quizzes, and researches, while celebrating victories like the Nursing Fun Days, University Week, and University Hinampang stings like an arrow being shot in the heart.
No one likes the feeling of being one step behind while everyone else is one step ahead. The feeling of being trapped in a glass cage as you see the people you went to school with slowly but surely, reach their goals much quicker than you ever can. Despite that, a true testament of a person’s character is the strength it takes to go back, even after a year, and facing it all with grace and perseverance. Marian returned to WVSU-CON in 2023 not as Batch Zephyr, but as Batch Avani, a person reborn.
Emerging as a well-rested and new person, one internal conflict still remains – the question of giving up or pushing through.
Even after the end of her LOA, Marian still faced the dilemma of quitting or staying. With episodes of physical and emotional turmoil, the vision of graduating simply did not sink in to her. Although the finish line was so close in sight, it seemed like eight more hours of duty, six more hours of lecture, four more days of school, two more quizzes or even just one more nursing process was enough to tip her spirit into giving up. We all know that feeling – something is so close, holding out a little more thinking our fingers can finally reach it, yet it seems so far. Just one more day, one more exam, one step at a time we remind ourselves.
Despite being diagnosed with PCOS and Grave’s disease thinking she cannot nurse people back to health when her own health stops her, leaving school for a year and returning to school in a different batch, and the living with the stinging feeling of not being strong, tough, or good enough to finish this intense course, a few weeks ago, she just graduated cum laude with a diploma in hand and a pin in her jacket, smiling through the years of endless struggles that seemed to never-ending, until now.
She never gave up, she never quit, but most importantly she never let her faults get the best of her. She is no longer the girl who survived WVSU-CON, she is now the girl who thrived, overcoming every obstacle life gives her and coming out stronger than ever.
Everyone has their own story, everyone is unique in their own way. At the same time, everyone has their own battles, their own struggles, fears and troubles. But these things do not define a person, they do not define character. Character is something that comes from inside, it is the strength it takes to write our own story despite life trying write a different one. What is important is that in the end, we write the story we want to live in and live the life we work hard for.
“We are all on our own timeline, so don’t compare yourselves to others, as comparison is the thief of joy. Relax, take things easy and always remember, what’s meant to be yours will always be yours. God’s will be done.” – Marian Ledesma.
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