I Know How It Feels

August, 2025

Gloria Arredondo Chavez has always been compassionate. Growing up, she had a strong desire to become a nurse, but life threw her several curveballs that prevented her from attending nursing school. Things changed when her fifth child was born, and the delivery did not go as anticipated. There were serious complications that required her baby to be in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for two months. This was a difficult time, filled with fear and uncertainty in Arredondo’s life. She lived an hour away from the hospital and had four other children to care for, so there were days when she could not visit her newborn. The people who gave her the most hope and peace were the nurses in the NICU.

“I was always worried that my daughter was going to die while I wasn’t there,” Arredondo says. “But the nurses were so kind and would give me updates, sometimes hourly, on how she was doing. . . . The nurses were the ones that supported me. They helped me get through it. It was their behavior, their loving care and their interest in me and the rest of my family that made a huge difference in my experience. It was kind of a spiritual experience as well because it felt like I was close to my Heavenly Father and that He was watching out for me, my daughter, and the rest of my family through the nurses.”

After her baby was home from the NICU, Arredondo did not think she could be a nurse. She was terrified that she would not be able to comfort and help others as much as she had been helped. But then her bishop invited her to attend BYU–Pathway to continue her educational journey. After finishing her courses at BYU–Pathway, she attended BYU–Idaho online and was able to complete many of the nursing prerequisite courses. Arredondo was eventually accepted into the nursing program at BYU. This was exciting but also nerve-racking because of all the responsibilities she had with schooling and tending to her five children at home. What kept her motivated was knowing that one day she would be able to help someone in the same way she had been helped. She says, “I want to be like those nurses because I know how it feels. I know the uncertainty, the fear. I know what these parents and families are going through.”

Throughout her nursing journey, Arredondo has received several scholarships that have helped take some of the financial burdens off her family. The nursing program requires students to complete a public and global health inspiring learning experience, most of which includs study abroad in developing nations. Arredondo felt impressed by the Spirit to participate in the study abroad in Spain, and she was able to receive a scholarship that paid for most of her expenses.

“My gratitude is so deep because I don’t know if I will ever meet those who donated to the scholarship I received,” she explains. “That did not stop them from donating and making a difference in a person’s life, which for me has been life changing. Thanks to them and their selflessness, I get to keep going, keep learning, and eventually help others around me.”

Arredondo loves the skills that she is learning and is eager to graduate soon. Learning the Healer’s Art is all about becoming more Christlike and helping others physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Arredondo looks forward to sharing this Christlike compassion in the daily work of healing.