Some of us come into our own later in life I suppose. Or perhaps it’s a woman thing — or a confidence thing? The shift in me happened somewhere along the time I became a nurse — but my daughter also had a serious health issue dealt to us and Things Got Real as they say. None of us cared about the superficial any more. What REALLY mattered in Life was my all I could see. Life and Death. LOVE. Pettiness annoyed the shit out of me for several more decades -until as you so aptly described — my inner cat kicked in and I stopped giving fucks away to just anyone. My fucks became precious resources. I also began meditating and My Life opened up and all the land mines revealed themselves. Notably — I was usually the one planting them. So I stopped. Some days I’m better at it than others. But still — I have stopped caring what other people think of me. That is really none of my business.

Have a lovely day & thank you so much for reading & responding. I found your piece very enjoyable. I wish I had read it 24 years ago when I was starting my career. Sadly few nurse managers have the ability to manage autonomous entities.