EEJOON CHOI / NEXTGENRADIO
What is the meaning of
home?
Hannah Artman speaks with Andrew Ring for whom food has always been more than just a physical sustenance. For this St. Louis native, it’s comfort. But it wasn’t until Andrew left his hometown for a job that he realized it was more than the Gateway’s gooey cheese and iconic sweets that were calling him back to St. Louis. His job as a traveling nurse caused Andrew to miss home … creating a void that not even helping other people could fill.
Travel nurse gets the best of both coasts but misses tastes of home
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Food has always been more than just a physical sustenance for Andrew Ring.
For this St. Louis native, it’s comfort.
But it wasn’t until Andrew left his hometown for a job that he realized it was even more than the Gateway’s gooey cheese or iconic sweets that were calling him back to St. Louis.
His job as a traveling nurse caused Andrew to miss home … creating a void that not even helping other people could fill.
ANDREW RING: Today we did, I did hand surgery. I did some skin grafts. We take a piece of another skin from another part of the body and then put that onto that part where it needs the graft.
I really love sports medicine, so the type of surgery where you do knee replacements, you do shoulder replacements, those are my favorite surgeries. My boyfriend gets really annoyed ’cause I always say I love shoulders so much, which is weird, but everyone finds their niche and that kind of became my niche in the operating room.
My name is Andrew Ring. I am an operating room nurse in the St. Louis area.
I’ve been an operating room nurse for three years now. I’ve gone all over the country.
It was great money. It’s a great experience. So you get to see how the different facilities operate, it really gave me a lot of empathy of how health care can be delivered.
Most of the challenges that arose when I was traveling was not knowing anyone.
When I was homesick, I’d make a nice meal or look at my family’s pictures that I hung everywhere and feel like I’m back in St. Louis.
I miss Imo’s pizza. I miss not being able to get provel cheese at Costco. If you didn’t know, you can get provel cheese at Costco.
I’d be like, “Okay, let’s make my moms favorite dish that I grew up with.” Basic stuff. One of the classic meals is macaroni and cheese and weenies and beans.
I can still feel like I’m at her kitchen table eating. She always made cookies and her best was the gooey butter cookies.
And there’s always gooey butter cake at any function at my family.
It is pretty much glorified yellow cake, but it’s delicious. And it’s obviously gooey.
You don’t bake the yellow cake mix like you would normally.
Mix with melted butter.
Throw in a couple eggs.
Kind of makes a crust.
And then you pretty much whip together like eggs.
More butter and powdered sugar.
And you put that filling on top. And cream cheese.
Put that on the mixer. We’re gonna stir her up. You guys ever done these online recipes? Sometimes it’s just like, it’s like, where’s the recipe?
A lot of people at the hospital opened up their doors and said, come to our family Thanksgiving. So I was thinking about, you know, all the good desserts.
I was like, “Okay, I want to make some gooey butter cake and bring it to this house and show all these Mainers.” That’s people from Maine.
You know, did your moms ever, like, let you lick the bowl or whatever after? You know, get the little, the little, the remnants.
I did not think I was going to come back to St. Louis. When I came back for Christmas break, I kind of started talking to my current boyfriend Nathaniel, and we just hung out like literally every single day, so I was like, “Okay, I’m going to come back to St. Louis. I want to be with him and I miss my family. I miss my friends, miss my town.”
I know home isn’t just a place for some people. It’s a feeling and it really is. I guess my definition of home would be the love, the energy that you get from all your family, all your friends, and whatever culture that lies within your area.
And I think you take that wherever you go.
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It’s Thanksgiving in Maine and Andrew Ring is standing at a colleague’s door with a tray of homemade gooey butter cookies. As a former travel nurse, connecting with people during short-term contracts is hard, so it’s important to bring a little bit of home to whomever he meets.
Ring, 26, was born and raised in the suburbs of O’Fallon. He graduated school and began working as an operating room nurse in 2021.
“I saw nursing as such a great opportunity because they’re the ones that are your advocate for your health,” said Ring. “I just love the combination of humanism and science.”
When he’s not dodging bone fragments or assisting with skin grafts, Ring’s role is the main communicator and caretaker in the room, “Making people comfortable as they go to sleep … holding their hand. My number one rule is holding someone’s hand while they drift off under anesthesia.”
He has been present for life-changing surgeries like breast reductions and top surgeries.
“Just being able to give someone that care that’s going to ultimately change their life and their outlook, how they convey themselves to the world, is just amazing,” he said.
Andrew Ring poses at his home on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in Maplewood, Mo.
HANNAH ARTMAN / NEXTGENRADIO
But in 2023, he felt a need to “get away from it all” and experience something outside of his hometown. So he got into travel nursing.
Although travel nursing existed before COVID, the pandemic exacerbated stresses within every institution, particularly health care. Ring explained that part of the reason travel nursing is essential is because quality and expertise of care ranges from state to state, so having access to different healthcare professionals nationally helps provide gaps in coverage to patients.
Ring embarked on one of two major travel stints before returning home. The first stop was Maine.
He was excited to meet new people, challenge himself at work, and to his surprise, teach others about St. Louis at every chance he got
Doing this work often required 10- to 12-hour days, and being in a new place made it difficult to find a community. He missed a lot of family holidays, and recalls the challenges of making friends with people who didn’t have much interest in investing in a temporary relationship.
Just being able to give someone that care that’s going to ultimately change their life and their outlook, how they convey themselves to the world, is just amazing.
Andrew Ring poses for a photo with a fellow employee at the Central Maine Medical Center while on contract there. Ring described building a community with other traveling healthcare workers to pass the time in new cities.
Courtesy / Andrew Ring
To create a sense of home, Ring posted family photos on his fridge, and, after long shifts in the OR, decided to make a familiar Midwest comfort food. “If I was homesick, I’d be, like, okay, let’s make my mom’s favorite dish that I grew up with — basic stuff.” His favorites? “One of the classic meals is macaroni and cheese and weenies and beans.” But of course, “Her best was the gooey butter cookies,” a version of the gooey butter cake, but in individual form.
For Ring, food was his link to home, which is where the cake on Thanksgiving in Maine comes in.
“I was thinking about, you know, all the good dessert that I’d be missing at home. And there’s always gooey butter cake at any function in my family. So I really was like, okay, I want to make some gooey butter cake and bring it to this house and show all these ‘Mainers.’”
Ring was honored to introduce his new group of friends to the iconic St. Louis gooey butter cake. The legend is that the cake was made by accident nearly 100 years ago.
“Everyone loved [it]. It was a hit. I think gooey butter cake should be national.”
Andrew Ring reaches into his cabinet for baking supplies at his home on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in Maplewood, Mo. Ring has grown up with gooey butter cake and made it for friends while traveling.
HANNAH ARTMAN / NEXTGENRADIO
Andrew Ring pours gooey butter cake batter into a pan on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, at his home in Maplewood, Mo. The “gooey” from the dessert’s title is derived from preparing yellow cake mix with butter instead of water.
HANNAH ARTMAN / NEXTGENRADIO
Andrew Ring prepares a gooey butter cake for the oven on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, at his home in Maplewood, Mo. He calls the rubber spatula his “OCD tool” so he can even out the batter before baking.
HANNAH ARTMAN / NEXTGENRADIO
Everyone loved [it]. It was a hit. I think gooey butter cake should be national.
Ring was grateful this was one midwestern morsel he didn’t have to vehemently defend like he did St. Louis pizza.
“A lot of people don’t agree with our thin crust pizza … you know, the Northeast people, they think they have it on lock with their pizza … so that’s something I would always have to defend.”
Despite the social victory, the demanding schedules and navigating time zones made Andrew decide to take a month between contracts to visit home. While there, he met someone unexpectedly. However, he embarked on his next journey, this time leaving behind not just his friends and family, but also his new partner — which made his next contract in Seattle even more challenging. His mother even jokingly questioned why he was trading one coast of the country for the opposite.
This time, instead of photos and food, Andrew occasionally flew his family and partner out to visit.
Ring said while missing loved ones is hard, traveling from hospital to hospital is also intimidating. He says learning new lingo is difficult, as is learning his colleagues’ names and faces.
He explains that “navigating a hospital is kind of scary sometimes, especially a really big one.” Working in the OR intensifies that challenge because “operating rooms are so big and everything looks the same. You turn left, everything looks the same as it was on the right,” he said. “And then you don’t know anyone’s names, so you’re trying to learn everyone’s names. And in the operating room it’s tough because people are wearing hair nets and then they have a mask on.”
He explains it’s “just a culture shock,” but he’s proud of the skills he has developed. He said he can walk into any OR now and feel confident.
Andrew Ring poses for a photo with fellow nurse Julie White. Ring has worked as an orthopedic operating room nurse for three years.
Courtesy / Andrew Ring
Even though Seattle was his second assignment, it didn’t make the isolation any easier. His experience taught him that while sharing foods was an okay proxy for creating a sense of home, he was missing the people. He decided to go home at the end of his contract.
“I really liked the experience, and I loved meeting people, and I loved being able to go to these cities and drive around and go hiking or try a different restaurant,” said Ring. “It was really fun and the money’s not too bad. So once things settle down in my life, I would do it again.”
He knows home isn’t necessarily a physical place. For Ring, home is “the love, the energy that you get from all your family, all your friends, and whatever culture that lies within your area. And I think you take that wherever you go.”
Andrew Ring finishes making gooey butter cake at his home on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in Maplewood, Mo. Ring says the dessert is a St. Louis and family tradition.
Courtesy / Andrew Ring
I was thinking about, you know, all the good dessert that I’d be missing at home. And there’s always gooey butter cake at any function in my family.