Accidental Journey Stacey Williams Counts Herself Lucky For Her Successes In Athletics, Academics And For Getting Into The Nursing Profession

Stacey Williams is lucky to be accident prone. The 1985 Lakeland High School graduate has a niche for turning the fender-benders of her life into something monumental.

“We didn’t have a lot of sports to choose from,” she said. “I played volleyball for two years, basketball (all-league in 1985) and ran track for three. But my true love was softball, but that was only offered in the summers.”

She doesn’t admit to being a great athlete but more of a bookworm.

“I was co-valedictorian,” she said. “I didn’t party at all until graduation. Then I shocked quite a few people when I showed up for the senior kegger.”

She dismisses most things in her life to luck and coincidence, calling those turning points “accidents.” Like how she joined track and was the top female runner in the mile and 2-mile runs.

“Well,” she said with a laugh,“that’s because I was the only runner.”

That in itself happened through odd circumstances.

“Our track coach saw me in basketball practice when I was a sophomore and was under the illusion I was fast,” she said. “I worked out with the sprinters one day and he said, `You’d better run long distance.”’

The next three years, she was the Hawks’ distance runner. She pretended not to like it.

“I’d say if I don’t qualify for state, I wouldn’t run the next year,” she said. “But there must have been something about it I liked, because I always worked hard to qualify.”

Her two years on the basketball court and her 14-points-per-game average had the makings of college ball, but she didn’t take the thought of hoops after high school seriously.

Instead, she went to North Idaho College with no idea of what she wanted to do. So she played volleyball and got her education paid.

“I don’t know how I even got on the team,” she said. “I wasn’t very good but there was open tryout, and somehow or another, I made it.”

She played one year, from the bench, and afterward made one of her best mistakes.

“I was doing everything I was supposed to do,” she said. “But I realized I wasn’t doing it for myself.”

Williams was working full time and liked the idea of supporting herself. She didn’t come from a family of wealth and enjoyed seeing her name on a weekly paycheck. Since she didn’t really like playing, she quit school and focused on her job, working in the kitchen of the now defunct Osprey.

“I always felt that there was this expectation that I had to make something happen,” she said. “I felt I was programmed to do it. I was very hard on myself.”

Within a day of making the decision, she knew it was a mistake. A month later, the Osprey closed its doors. By spring, she was back in school and playing volleyball again. She earned her degree in general studies. Still, she didn’t know where she was headed and troubled.

“I was crying in my coffee one night with my roommate, Mary Moen,” said Williams. “We were sitting at this cafe, and I was doing the what-am-I-going-to-do-now thing, and Mary suggested going into the nursing field with her. I wasn’t sure, because Mary is extremely smart and I didn’t think I could do it.”

She looked into it and found she had most of the requirements, so she applied.

“I said if I didn’t get in that year, I wasn’t going to do it.”

Two years later, she earned her nursing degree. She took the first job she was offered, working for Providence Medical Center in Seattle.

“I wanted to get away,” she said, shaking her head. “I lived there about a year and a half, but I kept coming home every weekend. So I figured I might as well move back.”

She joined the nursing staff at Sacred Heart Medical Center in 1992 working in the neurology ward. After seven years, she moved into the intensive care unit.

“It’s a tough but rewarding job,” she said. “I feel I am a compassionate person, and sometimes you find yourself nursing the family during their time of grief. It can be stressful. There are times I am glad I work 30 miles away so I can take a deep breath and go, `Whew.”’

It’s been 10 years now, and she feels nursing is the best indecision she ever made.

“Sometimes you have to find your rewards,” Williams said. “You have to tell yourself you did the best you could. I think what is most rewarding is the resilience of the human spirit in a person. You can sense that essence and know that they are fighters and their will to live. It’s an amazing thing.”