You Remind Me of My Favorite Resident

You Remind Me of My Favorite Resident”

I was working with three young nurse aide students, teaching them to take manual blood pressures, when one of the eighteen-year-olds smiled at me and said, “You’re so cute. You remind me of one of my favorite residents.”

I blinked. “I’m cute—and I remind you of who?” I asked.

The other two students started laughing.

She flushed. “No, I didn’t mean it like that.”

I looked at this teenager—young enough to be my granddaughter. “How did you mean it?”

I was laughing, half-teasing, but also assessing her, wondering if I could outrun her.

The reality is that in nearly every physical ability, she exceeds me. She’s eighteen. I’m sixty-four.

But at least I can still teach her how to take a blood pressure.