A patient encounter that I will always remember from my time at UNE was with an elderly lady who had a stroke history and was considered a “feed assist.” I went into the situation like any other, I will probably just give her a few bites of food and then she will be done with it. Well this lady and I spent 2.5 hours together, it took me that long to feed her and monitor her while she ate. At first there really wasn’t much conversation beyond how are you feeling, surface level stuff. Then she began to tell me about how one of her daughters has been a nurse for over 30 years and we got to talking about school and how times have changed especially in the time of COVID. What I learned most from this situation was that just because she had a stroke doesn’t mean that she herself was not there, she might have some difficulty swallowing and things like that but she was still there and is still a real person. We ended up having a really good conversation and she gave me some really good advice, as most elderly people do but she told me to enjoy this time of my life and that yes it might seem like youre always climbing a mountain but once you get to the “top” its hard to mentally shift to the other way of thinking. She also told me that these are the good days, I replied with that I realize how lucky I am to have this opportunity to get an education and to be in the position that I am today. Looking back 4 or 5 years ago I would be looking up to who I am today and proud of who I have become. So yes it is easy to get lost in all the surface level stuff that life throws at you but that stuff really doesn’t matter in the end.