The Nursing Skills Lab used to be our classroom in our Nursing Jurisprudence and during our stay there in the past semester, the whole class used to take some small Nursing Paraphernalia in the unlocked glass cabinets that neatly line the wall. I used to take IV sets, IV cannulas or syringes and play with them at home. Sometimes I use them to replenish my items in my bag for duty. Most of the things that we stole during our stay were either too cheap or expired already so I didn’t feel any guilt whenever I pocket a couple of items. I guess what really hindered me from taking the bigger stuff was the fact that the more expensive things are put away in the locked cases at the back of the laboratory.
Now, one time while we were waiting for our Saturday Class lecturer to come after lunch my classmate asked me to go with her. While we were walking across the school, we saw the lab’s back door open. We went inside and checked on the more expensive stuff. There was a mob of Juniors outside and we knew that we were clearly seen through the glass doors and windows but we didn’t care since they didn’t have a CI with them. The sliding glass of the cabinet was locked so I pushed it upward then pulled it down so I was able to remove it entirely [I learned this technique from Alex]. I held the glass while my classmate ransacked the whole content of the glass cabinet. My hand became shaky and sweaty. The handle of the glass slipped through my palms and I almost broke it. The last time we tried to nick some stuff from it my classmate cut her hand so I was really worried. I nagged at her to get the sphygmos, the plasters, everything her hands can grab on. A CI or a staff might come by at any moment. She took all that she could and we ran out of the room really swiftly.
I wasn’t entirely guilty of what I did, in fact it was really such a thrill. But then as the lecture went on a student knocked on our classroom and said that the Fourth Year coordinator shall be talking to the whole class at the end of the session so that’s when I got really nervous. I was like, “What if the Juniors squeeled?” My classmnate didn’t think so and was pretty indifferent. “Hindi ka kasi sanay gumawa ng kalokohan.”
I was like “c’mon what does the Student Manual say about first offense stealing?”
“I dunno. Who reads that book anyway?”
“Well… me.”
She snorted and listened back to the lecturer. The lecturer was the best one we had and I hate myself because I couldn’t focus. I sweat with beaded perspiration and started to hyperventilate. Things came pushing in my mind like; what if I dropped the glass, what if I cut my hand, what if the third year squeeled? It was torture. My mind was like in a limbo and my classmate was so relaxed.
I told her that we got to get out of the classroom after the lecture.
“We can’t. We have to meet the Coordinator.”
“Exactly.”
“They wouldn’t allow us.”
“Make up a story then.”
She pulled her seatmate and told her I feel like pooping and I had to go to her house to use the bathroom. It didn’t take long until everyone in the line knew about this and they believed her; with my beaded sweats and agitations, who wouldn’t?
After the class I pulled her outside. I Said we’d just wait until they have finished talking with the Coordinator and just ask them what it was about. While waiting, she told me she wanted to go to the church so I asked her if she diesn’t even feel guilty or at least bad for what we did. I argued that it was bad especially the amount of things we stole, Alcohols, stethoscopes, plaster, sphygmomanometrs and even thermometers. She said that we own them since we paid for a laboratory fee in the enrolment. We argued for some time until I decided to go back to our room and ask a classmate. I said, “Hindi ka ba nakokonsensya?” We were running so I didn’t see the nuns who overheard us.
One of the nuns stopped me and said, “How come? You should go to church then.”
“Oh you don’t know the whole story.” My classmate sniggered.
GuGuardian Angel Acosta
