“For six years, I have been a volunteer with the Red Cross for emergency response, but achieving my dream of becoming a nurse seemed complicated to me… at least in the short term. I was a business owner: with my husband , we had a press relations company in decoration and food. Our company was doing very well; our customers and our employees counted on us. We have two little girls, a loan to repay and we live in the Paris region where life is very expensive… especially when the retraining I was considering took me from a salary of 4,500 euros to a minimum wage! So I decided to prepare for it.
With my husband, we worked like crazy to save money and afford a new life. When I signed up for Parcoursup in 2020, I thought I would start my training two years later, but the successive confinements, the drop in activity and the toxicity of certain customers got the better of my patience. At a time when thousands of people were dying because of the pandemic, when caregivers were killing themselves with the task, I had to manage customers whose only obsession was to continue to sell… I had the feel like you’re not in the right place. Especially since we went through the various confinements in our house in Normandy and I was far from my colleagues from the Red Cross. The third lockdown was the straw that broke the camel’s back! When you discover a passion, it’s complicated to continue doing something else.
So off I go for three years of study that will cost me 24,000 euros. As I was a business manager, I have no Pôle Emploi allowance, nor any aid to finance my retraining, which I find very unfair because, for twelve years, I contributed and created jobs. ! In addition, the nursing profession is extremely tense, especially in the Paris region. My retraining is a real obstacle course but it’s worth it: tomorrow, I will have a job that I can do anywhere. And then, I learn so many things: I feel like I’m giving my brain a new chance. Every morning when I put on my badge, I know that’s where I belong.”
