Humbled : Grateful : Inspired

I am extremely excited and yet very humbled to have been awarded a very generous scholarship for the 2010-2011 school year. So excited because quitting work for two years makes for some serious financial uncertainty! When I calculate all my basic expenses (tuition, fees, books) for fall, spring and summer semesters, I'm pretty sure it will all be covered. Woot! God is good!  The humbling part is that this is a memorial scholarship for Jessica Lester, a 25-year-old wife and daughter who died in 2007. While I am soooo grateful to be awarded this nursing scholarship, I realize her family has lost so much.

Jessica was a 2003 graduate from PVCC's nursing program and was working as a nurse and continuing her nursing education at UVA when she died of severe brain trauma. From what I can gather, a cement truck, that was going to fast around a curve in the road, flipped over onto her car (her husband was with her but had only minor injuries). She was in UVA's ICU for 8 days before she died. Her accident occurred about a month after I left for Liberia. I had not heard this story until now.

Her husband and her family set up this scholarship to provide for "promising nursing students" in her honor. It seems so very wrong to be excited about receiving this scholarship, when I realize that it is through their loss that I am blessed. Not only am I motivated and inspired to work hard in honor of Jessica...but it is also a reality check. None of us is promised tomorrow. It's a reminder that even in the midst of my stressful nursing studies, I cannot isolate myself--but need to find a way to remain actively involved with my friends and family. They need me. I need them. I don't want to look back and wish I had loved them better.

I am so grateful for the Lord's provision, and pray that I might be a good steward of this gift bestowed on me.

You can read more about this young woman on the site they set up for the scholarship: http://jessicalestermemorialfund.wordpress.com/.  One interesting discovery, when Jessica was young she lived in Rock Hill, SC for a while. That is where I went to college (Winthrop)! I think we were both living in Rock Hill at the same time--although she was about 8 years younger than me.