My Jar of Stars | Shannon's Story
Story 191
"Every life that I helped bring into this world, they're meant to do something."
My name is Shannon and I'm the perinatal educator for Adventist Health Central Coast. And this is my jar of stars. I've been a nurse since 2012. I went back to school and became a labor and delivery nurse because of the awesome care that I received from labor and delivery nurses. And I'm like, "I wanna do that when I grow up." Some of the things that labor nurses do is count how many babies they help deliver. Before I stepped away to be in the education department, I helped deliver 495 babies. I miss the moms, I miss the babies. I miss the idea of helping people make a new family. I also have a origami crane that I wear around my neck. I lived in Japan for a year, and so I learned to do a lot of different origami. And so stars was just a little cute, tiny thing that I could use and put in a jar. And then I call them my jar of stars. Every life that I helped bring into this world, they're meant to do something. It's fun when you go to the grocery store and you run into families that you helped in labor and delivery, and they're like, "You are my nurse." And then you get to see the kid, and they might be three or four years old by this time, but it's neat to see that they remember me, I remember them, and you know, we have a little bond. They're all my favorite stars and all my favorite stars, they're here to shine. They're here to do something in this world, make it a better place. So I think seeing my jar of stars reminds me of the happy times of bringing people into this world that are here to make a difference. Every star is unique. I can't make these the same. They're all different. All kids are different. I'm gonna keep my jar of stars forever.
