ABSTRACT
In medieval times, novices who joined monasteries, nunneries and religious orders went through initiation rites. Their heads were shaved, they started wearing strange and uncomfortable clothes and the names that they had lived with from birth, the names that their mothers had given them, were exchanged for new ones. These practices enacted the loss of a previous life and the beginning of a fundamentally new identity. This chapter tells the story of Laura, a student nurse. The story is about Lara's difficult relationship with the qualified nurses that she worked with and relied on for her own registration. It focuses on the personal transformation that can occur following rigorous analysis of the causes of what resilience researchers describe as ‘adversity’.
