Why Nevada? My sister and I had visited a family friend in Las Vegas and fell in love with the place. But there were also many educational incentives in Nevada, which were intended to motivate the locals, who didn’t seem to care much about education. The school fees were also much more reasonable compared to other universities. Moreover, the weather was beautiful. I mean, for someone who grew up in the tropics, the winters in Ohio were quite brutal. Besides, our family friend was willing to host me until I could find my feet. Of course, my dad wasn’t too keen, but I still went ahead with it. I bought my car (a red Mitsubishi Gallant), enrolled in school, and continued to work with the Nevada branch of Comfort Keepers. After my Bachelor’s, I decided to enroll for my Master’s degree in Health Care Administration and Policy at the same university, which I completed successfully. Now all that was left was for me to do an internship of a thousand hours with a Health Administrator, in order to get my Nursing Home Administrator license. Due to the shortage of Licensed Nursing Home Administrators, it was quite challenging to find an administrator tomentor me for my internship. It was really frustrating. Finally, one administrator, sensing my frustration, whispered to me that the Board of Health Administrators was having their meeting somewhere downtown the very next day. She said to me, “If only you are bold, you can go there and plead your case.” Of course I was bold! I was brave! Like a tigress, I fought for what I wanted! I did not want anyone to judge me by my quietness. The next day, well dressed and properly groomed, I set off for the venue of themeeting. When I got there, there was a police officer at the door who asked if I had an invitation. When I said “no,” he looked really surprised, and then he called the secretary, who also asked how I knew there was a meeting there. I told her I had heard it in a conversation. She then directed me to the Boardroom. As soon as I entered the Boardroom, everyone stopped to look at me. Even the Chairman looked surprised, but he asked me to sit at the back and wait. There was a tall list of Nursing Homes and Administrators to certify and a lot of citations to look at, but I sat through it all, not willing to give up at all, and determined to make a case for myself. After their deliberations, the Chairman turned to me and asked, “Can we hear from you?” I got up, introduced myself, and told them that I wanted to be an Administrator, that I was really interested in the profession, that I knew there was a shortage of Administrators in Nevada, that I had finished my Master’s degree, and yet, I was finding it difficult to find an Administrator to mentor me. Everyone was shocked; very few people had the courage to do what I was doing by coming to the board of directors meeting. The Chairman looked at me in admiration and said, “You are very bold.” And then he said the sweetest thing ever: that he would give me an Executive Director to mentor me. Fancy that! It was the best thing that happened to me that day. That was how I met Linda Gelinger, the Executive Director of all the Nursing homes in Nevada — a lovely, beautiful lady. She was in the Executive suite and I had my internship in the Executive suite! And I must say that I really enjoyed my internship; Linda taught me so many things on how to manage a Nursing Home and healthcare in general. After that, I wrote my Board Exams, and got my Nursing Home Administrator License. Linda was so excited when I passed my boards that she helped me get a job as an Administrator in Nevada where I practiced for awhile. She even came for the naming of my son. We are good friends to this day. 17 The Birthday Journal
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