A Detective and a Sponge

Not to toot my own horn here (really!😄) but in the broader context of this post, I have been described by former bosses, collaborators, or professors by various phrases.  I have chosen some that are relevant here - excellent communicator, has excellent social skills, insightful, highly motivated, diligent, an accomplished professional with unbounded energy, an active mind, hardworking and focused, consistently demonstrates an ability to rise to any challenges she must face...
My professor from the nursing program where I graduated this past May reached out to me yesterday and called me "a detective and a sponge".  And when I told my mentor this, he said, you need to write about such an eclectic and interesting choice of words.

So I got to thinking about it.  In retrospect, I was the type of student who would learn something new in clinical rotations, like about dialysis, and want to know everything about it.  In this case, I requested to spend more time in the dialysis lab, took diligent notes, asked questions to fill in the blanks, and then came back to very excitedly tell the class the whole story.  It always helped for me to get the full story so that I could paint a mental picture and that way a concept better kept in my memory.  But generally, when I found something fascinating, which was often, I devoured every word.  Back to this particular case, the step by step process in dialyzing.  The very idea that a machine could drain out your blood, do the filtering work of your kidneys for you, add back the right amount of electrolytes and then return the blood to your body, was to me an amazing concept and one of many I "sponged" up in my worthy journey through nursing school.

But the second part of this is that when people you have collaborated with, people you look up to, who are leaders in their own right, highlight the leadership qualities you possess, then you are not only motivated, but have almost a moral duty to hold yourself to such standards.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” - John Quincy Adams
“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” ― John F. Kennedy