I want to take a moment and blog about my dog Xena.  My parents went to Mexico for vacation, so I had the pleasure of dog-sitting for 3 weeks.  Xena is a rat terrier with a lot of spunk.  She is splotchy brown and white (it looks like someone spilled paint on her) and is the queen of snuggling.  Her favorite thing to do is fall asleep on the heating pad and she has recently started to really like broccoli (with the occasional cheese).  Xena is a little high maintenance and she requires constant attention.   Taking care of her has been a lot of responsibility so far and it’s really made me think about adulthood and my future as a nurse.  College students, if not the majority of young people, are still pretty selfish in that they save all of their time for things they want to do and they worry about numero uno (themselves).  I would say that I’m still a selfish college student because my immediate worries only involve my needs and what I want.  I’m not scared about taking on responsibility and I think I’m fully capable of being a caring nurse, but it’s a little weird for me to think that eventually I will be an adult like the adults I see in my everyday life.  When will I feel the transformation?  Will it just happen someday?  When do you know you’re an adult?  Legally, I am an adult, but it doesn’t always feel that way.  Right now, it feels like it has always felt (go to class for two semesters, enjoy summer, winter, and spring breaks).  I guess being an adult is just taking baby steps and getting to where you want to be in life (I remember sitting in my high school art class thinking I would never get to college and that I would never be able to choose a major or future career).  For now, I’ll keep applying to nursing schools and waking up at 5 a.m. to take my dog outside.