Nursing and Dancing through Life with Authenticity: Alex Lilly
Name: Alex Lilly
Where are you based? Hershey / Harrisburg, PA
Hometown: Eldersburg / Sykesville, MD
With the rise of social media culture, authenticity can seem harder and harder to come by, but that is not the case when it comes to Alex Lilly. This young nurse, dancer, and model, is not afraid to be herself and put it out there for the world to see.
Alex and I met in middle school, and even then, at a time when we young adolescents had high propensity for insecurity, Alex seemed confident in who she was. She has carried that confidence with her as she has pursued her career and creative expressions with passion in adulthood, making her a spectacular feature for ZillennialWomen.
NURSING
Alex works as a nurse on a Med Surg floor at Hershey Medical Center. On her floor, she sees patients of all kinds, within different service lines. As she lists off just a small range of specialties she sees within her floor — neurology and neurosurgical patients, orthopedic patients, urology patients, reparative plastic surgery patients, and more — it makes it hard to believe that the same nurses are caring for all of these different kinds of patients.
Although there isn’t an immediately apparent common thread among these patients, the nurses on her floor lovingly refer to patients as “walkie talkies” because they can usually walk and talk, unlike the patients on some units who may be immobile or unconscious. Because these patients are a bit more active than others, these patients require more attention, and Alex likes it that way.
“I like to be a fixer,” Alex explains, and on her floor, many of the patients come in because they have something that can be fixed surgically or with careful medical care.
Alex elaborates on why she thinks her floor is the perfect fit: “I get to see the changes; I get to see the patients leaving the hospital, and I get to meet a bunch of people, which is kind of the central being of why I became a nurse.”
She reflects, “I knew that I couldn’t sit at a desk all day long. That was never going to be a job for me. And as much as nursing — now, especially — has become a lot of computer work… it still all is centered around people. It’s still all day long, talking to people, working with them, and then hopefully making a difference in people’s lives.”
Picking Her Profession
“I always, for the longest time, wanted to be a teacher,” Alex begins. Knowing her in middle school, I can attest that Alex always had quite a talent for teaching and engaging others, especially when it came to being creative.
However, an eighth grade project requiring us to present about our future careers stepped in to change this fate. As someone else in the class wanted to present about being a teacher, Alex was asked to select another profession. She was able to take a personality quiz to see recommended careers, and nursing was near the top of the list.
As a very active kid, Alex had been no stranger to the emergency room. She had always had positive experiences with getting medical care, and she thought she could be a great fit to provide it herself. With the affirmation of this from the personality quiz, she was all in, and from that moment on, she hasn’t looked back.
After completing a high-school career program where she was able to get introductory nursing experience, Alex attended The Pennsylvania State University to pursue her nursing degree.
During her senior year at Penn State, Alex babysat for a pediatric trauma nurse manager who referred her to a career fair where she was able to meet with multiple managers and apply for jobs. After receiving many interview offers, she decided to choose a Med Surg floor at Hershey Medical Center because of the variety of patients she’d be able to work with in the unit. “I knew that I needed a challenge. I knew that I needed something that every day, it would be something different,” she recalls.
“And boy, oh boy, did I get that,” she continues. “Even when I work two or three days in a row, even if I have the same patients, I still see something different every day. I’m learning something.”
“Every day, I’m talking to new people, and that is what keeps me going back to work. That’s what keeps me wanting to do more, as much as — especially right now with COVID — work is exhausting, I still want to go back. I still want to learn more. I still want to push myself for another day. And I think that that’s important in a job; I think it’s important to be passionate about what you’re doing and to want to go into work and to to feel like you have a purpose,” she attests.
Managing Stress
As a nurse, Alex has always been on the front lines of our healthcare system, so she is no stranger to stress. Nonetheless, with COVID-19 striking the nation so hard, there has been an added stressor over these past nine months.
She describes the many changes at her hospital since COVID-19 hit hard in March 2020. The frequent changes to best practices and policies have been especially difficult. She explains that everyone is working as hard as they can to take action on new information and guidelines as they come, but it can still feel unmanageable: “It’s all trying to be in good conscience. It’s all trying to be what’s best. But nobody knows what’s best.” She continues, “The unknown is honestly what makes it all the scariest for everybody.”
With a disease like COVID-19, Alex explains that it can be demoralizing for healthcare workers who feel like they aren’t getting the support and guidance they need: “We’re all just learning, like we have no idea, and everybody’s just trying to do what’s best, but sometimes best isn’t good enough.”
With this experience, I ask Alex how she manages the stress that comes with her job. She responds, “A lot of nurses have a lot of empathy. A lot of us are empathic and feel for things, and it can be really hard to put so much of yourself in, and then to forget, like, ‘Oh, I need to care for myself here, too.’”
Nonetheless, Alex has found a significant source of relief in talking to her peers, including her roommate, who is also a nurse. “When I talk to my roommate or my coworkers, I can unload on them and they’ve had a similar experience or have been in a situation where they can give me some feedback. And we can debrief,” she explains.
Despite the stress, Alex truly loves her job. “My favorite question to ask people is, ‘If you weren’t in the career that you are now, what would you be doing differently?’ And I have such a hard time answering that myself, because I really do just love what I do,” she shares.
She adds, “I think it’s so cool how many different avenues you can take in nursing, and I liked the security of knowing that when I went to college, I would have a job right out of it. I will always have a job and somebody who needs my abilities and services, and that level of confidence in security is nice.”
Where to Go from Here
Similarly to how Alex knew she did not want a desk job, she knows that she wants to pursue differentiation in her nursing career so she is not doing the same thing for the rest of her life.
She elaborates, “I have sort of tipped my toe into all the different buckets, and just watching my coworkers transition into other fields has sort of given me an idea of all the different things that I could do, because there are so many. I’ve thought about a lot of them, and I don’t really have a set idea yet, but I think that keeping my options open is almost more exciting.”
She describes a couple of different options that pique her interest, like travel nursing or becoming a clinical instructor, and although she hasn’t made a decision yet, I note there are some common themes within what she is drawn to: being at the forefront of her field, and having a legacy or an impact. She agrees, clarifying, “When I get asked the question, ‘Where do I want to be in 10 years?’ It’s like, the job that I want in 10 years isn’t a job yet.”
EXPRESSION
Although I was definitely interested in talking to Alex about her career in nursing, I originally was inspired to reach out to her for an interview for entirely different reasons — namely, her passion for creative expression.
Despite being a busy full-time nurse, Alex has managed to continue to flex her creative muscles through dance and modeling. “I think it’s so important to recognize that we are more than our jobs,” she begins.
Alex has been a dancer for almost her entire life. She knew as she was entering college that she would be pursuing a nursing degree, but she also knew that she wanted to hold on to the dancer within her: “I always knew that I could never lose that. That was always a part of me, and that was always going to be something that I kind of wanted to tap back into.”
She remarks, “I put a lot of value in the magic of music. I think the different things that I could discover about myself and the connections that I can make with people related to music and all art forms is really special.”
Modeling came a bit later, when she partnered with a friend with a passion for photography in college. She recalls, “Our first photoshoot was just a random, ‘Hey, I’m in town. Can we just explore and take some dance photos?’ She wanted to grow her creative portfolio, and I was always down for an adventure. And we never looked back.”
From there, she has participated in many casual shoots featuring a range of clothing and environments. In many of her photos, you can almost feel the movement, despite the fact that they are still images.
Although she has considered whether it is something she’d want to pursue as a side source of income, Alex recognizes that some of the fun comes from the fact that she is able to model casually, on her own terms. She shares, “I think it really is just a passion project for me. It’s just a way to release. I don’t want there to be a responsibility with it. I do it for myself.”
Confidence
For the entire time I have known Alex, she has been one of the most self-assured people I have met. This confidence gives her a magnetic quality, making it clear that she is comfortable in her own skin, and she is not afraid to put herself out there.
We talk about how she posts dancing videos and modeling photos on social media frequently. She notes, “I’m going to post what makes me happy, and if it bothers somebody else, then they can unfollow me. I feel what I’m doing. I don’t care if they don’t like it. I like it.”
She elaborates, “And I appreciate that I feel that way, because I recognize that a lot of people don’t. And it’s not an easy thing to be that way because of how heavy social media is, but it’s just sort of the kind of person that I am. I think I have to thank my mom for growing up like that, thinking, “You’re gonna do you and if you don’t like how I’m doing me, then that’s okay.’”
We took this moment to dig a little deeper into identity and how Alex has been able to grow her confidence and her passion for helping others. “I think it’s it’s neat to tap into that and to be conscious about identity and take a moment to really dig into it, because I think I put a lot of my identity in my work,” she begins. “And part of that, I think, is because I spend so much time at work and so much energy into it. So much of my emotional being is work.”
Nonetheless, she has also built her identity around other formative parts of her life. For example, religion and family have deeply influenced how she interacts with others: “I put others first and I oftentimes will do things for others. And I think part of that is my Catholic upbringing, my parents shaping that into me, and the empath in me. I often will put others before myself, and that is a big part of who I am. And as much as it can be very taxing, I’m proud of that part of me.”
Alex’s experience as the oldest of three sisters has also shaped her. She often was the family trailblazer, later passing guidance along to her sisters based on experience. However, now that all three girls are adults, she enjoys growing along with her sisters: “We’re not just high school girls anymore. We’re not, you know, going with the flow. We’re each creating our own purposes and finding our own things that we’re passionate about.”
She adds, “I feel very fortunate that I can always count on them and rely on them, and I’m hopeful for that in my future. I hope that I can create my own family that then can be an extension of that.”
This self-described “yes girl” is welcoming her future with open arms, and although even she doesn’t know exactly where the wind will take her, I am confident that she will bring authenticity and creativity with her wherever she goes.
INSPIRATION
Curious as to who and what keeps Alex inspired and energized? See below for a list of her recommendations!
Role Models
- Megan Batoon (https://www.instagram.com/meganbatoon/?hl=en or https://www.youtube.com/user/MeganBatoon)
- Hannah Williams
- Chrissy Teigen
Media
- Grey’s Anatomy, a TV show on ABC
- Just a Tip with Megan Batoon, a podcast
- TikTok as a means for discovering artists
- Spoken word poetry on TikTok and YouTube
- Discovering new music on Spotify
