Before I became a nurse, I was a nursing assistant for many years. In fact, the reason I never wanted to become a nurse is because I saw how they were: always overburdened and bogged down in paperwork. The reason I loved being a nurse's aide (as we were called back then) was because I was a part of my patients' lives in a very intimate way. Not just physically, obviously, but spiritually. Entering into their daily lives I was transported to a higher plane of existing. I was, by way of empathy and compassion, a better person because of knowing these demented, senile people who were actually fully realized beings.