I passed the exam on my sixth try

Dear Delyara, I failed the nursing board exam five times. After the third failure, relatives stopped asking about it. After the fifth, my father said gently, “Maybe God has another plan.” I worked mornings at a bakery and studied at night. I changed review centers. I joined a study group with students ten years younger than me. I recorded difficult topics in my own voice and listened while riding the bus. I also learned that shame was taking more energy than studying. So I told people the truth: I had failed, and I was trying again. Today, I saw my name on the pass list. I checked the spelling four times. My mother screamed. My father sat down on the kitchen floor and cried into both hands. He kept saying, “Nurse. My daughter is a nurse.” I am thirty-four. It took me eleven years longer than I planned. But today, no one can call those years wasted. They brought me here.