If you want to hear God laugh tell him your plan

Get a Real Job

     There are some things I want to accomplish in my life, but they are not necessarily "Bucket List material"...  they are things that I "assume" I will do, including buy a house, get married, have children, etc.   I never thought "Get a real job" would ever be on my bucket list...but it has been since I graduated from college and assumed I would have one.  I don't have any control over our country's economy & the fact that when I graduated all the hospitals were cutting back and the first thing to cut was recreational therapists due to reimbursement issues at the time.  "Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you respond to it." -Lou Holtz. 
      I jumped right into what I really wanted to do: Physical Therapy, by looking into schools that I was interested in...only coming to realize I should have spent waaaayyy more nights at Joyner Library instead of downtown Greenville.  I decided to attend Nash Community College to get my degree as a Physical Therapist Assistant while also waiting tables 40hrs a week at Brio Tuscan Grille to pay for all my living expenses.  I figured this was a good stepping stone into DPT school, not to mention I thought community college classes would be a breeze. I have never had to study so hard in my life...10 times harder than my bachelors degree!!  If you got below a 70 on an exam you were automatically cut from the program...and this was no joke! They cut a classmate on the very last exam just before our clinicals...talk about pressure!! I would call my parents crying after every exam...this was my "Plan B" and I could barely keep up! 

     All the nights I spent crying & the days I spent being exhausted... all the times I missed out with my friends because I had to wait tables at night to pay all my expenses...all the  gas money I spent driving 45 miles to class everyday & all the gallons of coffee I consumed listening to lectures M-F; 9-4pm, was finally worth it.  Hard work always pays off; maybe not as fast as we would like it to sometimes, but it one way or another it always pays off.  I graduated & worked part-time with the promise of becoming full-time at an small outpatient facility working with patients who presented mostly with sports related injuries.  I LOVED it...however it was only part-time still after 3 months and I worked way too hard in school to have just a part-time job.  Three weeks ago, I finally got a real job.  And by "real job" I mean my first big-girl-full-time-with-benefits-9 to 5 job at Raleigh Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, part of Kindred Healthcare.  It is a long term care facility and I am a Physical Therapist Assistant working with the geriatric population who no longer need to be in the hospital; however, they are not independent to live on their own.  I assist by increasing my patient's overall strength, endurance, coordination, range of motion, etc to improve their quality of life by preventing/controlling disease process, help to control pain & encourage mobility.

     I absolutely love my job, there is never a dull moment! It is fun, rewarding, fast-paced but not stressful (knock on wood).  Working with the elderly is just like working with children....I help them walk; just like they taught their child to walk.  I have patience when they constantly say they want something; just like having patience with a child who constantly wants candy/toy and throws a temper-tantrum. I listen to their discombobulated & confused stories and pretend it's the most amazing thing I've ever heard just so they will have someone to talk to;  just like a parent listens to their child talk about a stuffed animal for hours & over-exaggerate every event.  I help them get clean after they have wet or soiled their bed/pants; just like my parents helped clean me as a child.  When they get frustrated with me I understand; how would I feel if I was nauseous, weak, & in pain and someone was trying to make me get out of bed & walk? I would be irritated too! Working with the elderly really makes you think about the life in general, how fragile and short it really is.

     A patient's spouse said to me "Wow, I can't believe you got them out of bed by yourself.  There was a man and a lady in here with a machine to get him out of the bed earlier this morning, and here you come weighing 100 lbs and you were able to get him up and standing which nobody has been able to do since he's been here."  Of course the 100lb. thing was a compliment (and extremely far from the truth), but most importantly that comment made me realize that not only do I love my job, but I am good at it too.  The field of physical therapy is where I belong...I cannot imagine doing anything else. My *dream job* is to be a Physical Therapist and the icing on the cake would be to work with neurological patients (traumatic brain injuries & spinal cord injuries...by far the most fascinating, fun, & challenging patient to rehab!)  at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta. As of right now, my plan is to apply to DPT school in the fall of 2012, after I complete 2 more physics courses.  It is highly competitive.. UNC had 400 applicants last year and took a class of 32!!  All I can do is hope for the best and give it my best shot.  After all, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."-Wayne Gretzky