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With Memorial Day coming up, and people taking the opportunity to do things they don’t normally do (navigating holiday traffic, eating cured meat, forgetting to apply SPF 50, firing up a barbecue), it’s time to turn our attention to the noblest of professions: nursing.

Nurses are there for you in times like these. They don’t judge questionable behavior, but instead provide care and comfort, even if it’s the result of a mistimed water ski jump.

Here at SuperOptimist headquarters, we don’t spend a lot of time looking at calendars or clocks, being that we’re busy making the most of every moment. So imagine our surprise when we discovered that National Nurses Week had already come and gone!

It turns out that this celebration of caregivers begins each year on May 6th and ends on May 12th — Florence Nightingale’s birthday. That’s nice and all, but it’s during national holidays that nurses should really be honored.   At this point, we remembered another tenant of SuperOptimist practice: celebrate whatever you want, whenever you want.

So we hereby extend National Nurses Week for another 72 hours, and encourage you to recognize and appreciate the nurses in your life. Not just the hospital variety, who will be working overtime due to the human need to pack in the most fun over a three-day weekend, but the mother who fusses over every sniffle and scrape, the neighbor who rushes over with a bandage after you slip with the electric hedge trimmer, the son or daughter who administers to the visiting parent as if they were about to expire, or the concerned friend who hasn’t heard from you in 24 hours and calls repeatedly to make sure you’re still ambulatory.

As for a gift? You can always send a fruit basket. But we recommend getting a large tattoo of your favorite nurse on a forearm or neck to show your unwavering devotion. Remember: nurses work hard, and they have to stand all day in ugly shoes.  They deserve more than a thank-you card.  Let the celebration continue!