Record details
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My entire outlook on life changed in February 2008. My dad had a massive heart attack and actually flat-lined while attendants worked on him. After bringing him back to life, the crew moved him for emergency heart surgery. I felt helpless and disappointed at myself because I wasn’t able to help.
Soon thereafter, my mother was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. She chose to have a double-mastectomy to avoid problems with the cancer spreading. However, after the surgery, doctors discovered the cancer had already spread to other parts of her body. Once again, I felt helpless and overwhelmed.
I have known since I was a little girl that I wanted to be a nurse, but after I completed high school and the real world set in, I kept finding more and more reasons to put my dreams on hold. My parents’ health problems made me re-think what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, and I realized it wasn’t too late.
As soon as I could, I began the process of applying for admission to the licensed vocational nursing program at Tyler Junior College, but I didn’t know how I could do it. Being a single parent and having my parents in and out of the hospital weekly, the pressure mounted, and I began to wonder how I would be able to work to pay bills and feed my daughter, commute two hours daily from Rusk to Tyler to attend classes, and find a babysitter – not to mention how to meet other obligations that are required of a student in nursing school.
I prayed for a miracle. I knew my prayers had been answered when I was informed that TJC was opening a nursing program in Jacksonville. I could pursue my career as a nurse and help take care of my parents and many people just like them. I did my best in the application process and, to my joy, I was accepted.
I have spent the past year studying in the most wonderful facility in Jacksonville. The classrooms and labs at TJC-Jacksonville, which are inside ETMC Jacksonville, are outstanding. My instructors have been a delight to get to know and to learn from, and they have become close personal friends.
On August 1, I graduated from the TJC Licensed Vocational Nursing program. It was a challenge but I finished with a perfect grade-point average.
If TJC, Trinity Mother Frances, East Texas Medical Center and Jacksonville Economic Development Corporation hadn’t worked so hard last year to make the program possible, I would have missed out on so many important things. Commuting to Tyler would have made it impossible for me to be with my mother during chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Because of TJC-Jacksonville, I have also been able to spend time with my daughter and be home when she gets off the bus every afternoon.
The TJC-Jacksonville nursing program has been an answer to so many of my prayers. On behalf of my family and myself, I hope to personally thank each and every person involved in making my dreams of being a nurse come true.
I can’t wait to begin work helping others like my parents. And, thanks to the LVN to Associate Degree Nursing Transition program offered at TJC-Jacksonville, I will have the opportunity to continue on and become a registered nurse (R.N.).
TJC has brought something very special to me and now I have the opportunity to return that blessing by helping others in a profession that is in demand, noble and will provide a promising future for my daughter and my family. God bless all of you for bringing TJC to Cherokee County!
- Biography
- Krystal Persall was among a class of 19 that completed the TJC-Jacksonville Licensed Vocational Nursing program in August. Krystal graduated with a 4.0 GPA and has been offered employment by Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Skyview/Hodge unit in Rusk as a licensed vocational nurse, following successful completion of the state licensing examination. Her classmates are also considering job offers, planning to continue their education, or do both. TJC is proud of Krystal and the rest of her graduating class.