10/12 — Hey Jets fans, it's Michelle L from the Flight Crew! I am so excited to be in my second season with the Flight Crew. This year I have been given the opportunity to be an assistant group leader for the 2009 squad. It is an honor to hold a leadership position on our team, and I am proud to work with such a diverse and talented group of women.

Most of you know us as professional cheerleaders, but not everyone knows about our lives outside of the New York Jets. Many of the Flight Crew members are in college, and many of us have careers outside of the NFL. I wanted to take the opportunity to focus my blog on my other passion in life, which is nursing.

I graduated from UConn School of Nursing with the intent of moving to New York to pursue my two passions, nursing and dancing. I secured a job before I graduated at a prestigious university-affiliated hospital in Manhattan. The summer after my college graduation, I moved to New York City.

I have been living here for two years now, and it has been an incredible journey so far. I work as a Registered Nurse on an Organ Transplant Unit. We take care of patients before and after liver and kidney transplants. The unit I work for covers three levels of care. We have our own Intensive Care Unit, a Post-Operative Unit and an Acute Care floor.

Although our specialty is transplant, we also take care of patients who undergo heart, lung, gastrointestinal, orthopedic and urology surgeries. Because the patient population on my unit is so diverse, I have learned more in my first two years of practice than I did in four years of college!

I always knew I wanted to be a nurse. My mother is a nurse as well, and I grew up fascinated with her stories from work. One of my favorite childhood memories was “Take Your Daughter to Work Day.” I was amazed by how much of a difference my mother made in people’s lives every day. It was so inspiring. Even now I still aspire to be as great a nurse as my mother.

Nursing is nowhere near as glamorous a job as being a professional cheerleader for the NFL. In order to have a meaningful career in nursing, you have to truly love it. There is a continuing national shortage of nurses, so although it is relatively easy to find a job, the conditions and workload often reflect the shortage. Nonetheless, nurses go to work each day with a positive attitude and the comforting fact that we will make someone’s day a little better and that we are doing a service for the greater good.

Balancing my career as a nurse with my career with the Flight Crew has been a challenge. My schedule is very tight, and I am always busy, but I am fortunate to have a loving network of friends and family to help me get by. I love both careers, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

If you or someone you know is thinking about a career in nursing, I encourage you to pursue it. Nursing can be an amazingly rewarding career, and we need all the help we can get! Enjoy the rest of the 2009 football season; I’ll see you from the sidelines!

Sincerely, Michelle L