“Great job, Mom!” My 8-year-old son clutched a piece of paper in the backseat as we were thick in the midst of evening rush-hour traffic. I was perturbed with the stop-and-go-and-stop-again while thinking hard about work.

“What’s up, Bud,” I inquired quizzically as I stared into the rearview mirror.

With as much enthusiasm as if I had won a tremendous achievement, he exclaimed, “You earned three contact hours!”

My day melted away and the traffic became unnoticeable as I burst into laughter. I had just come from a brief nursing education program, and my son had found my continuing nursing education, or CNE, certificate of completion. One CNE certificate of literally a hundred or more I’ve received in my nursing career. Of course, I positively reinforced the heck out the situation: “Thanks, Sweetboy! That means a lot to me.”

Can you tell certificates are kind of a big deal in our home these days? They’re a must with a second grader and kindergartener. I’ve thought about this simple one-minute-or-less of my life many times since it happened. It makes me smile every time I think about it. I’m not sure when I lost my own zeal for certificates. Ten years of nursing, planning countless nursing education programs, and receiving and logging who-knows-how-many nursing education certificates of completion over the years for regulatory and certification compliance have likely jaded my view.

Not anymore. I’ll think of those zealous congratulatory words each and every time I hold a CNE certificate of completion until the day I die. I hope you pause to celebrate the routine achievements of completing continuing education course after continuing education course…even when there’s no one to exuberantly cheer great job!