Reflections on the year past

Greetings everyone! I hope the New Year has met you all with health and good fortune. I have decided to take a few moments over my vacation from school to reflect on how far my classmates and I have come since we decided to "torture" ourselves with PT School.

It's been 15 months (and change...) since we began our journey as PT Students. The question "What have you learned?" has been creeping into my mind as of late. Why has it been on my mind? With the tough journeys of several of my classmates and I, as well as some of the first-year students I begin to really analyze what I have truly accomplished in the last year. Besides accumulating an obscene amount of financial debt from school, and not to mention the many sleepless nights and weight gained from sitting on my rear and studying until the pictures in my books talk to me... I feel as if I have learned more about myself and my role as a future PT than I believe I can express in words. I know it sounds strange, but there is something about a year's worth of intense studying and learning that can have this kind of effect. As I think about it more I realize that my classmates and I spent the better part of 12 months absorbing and processing vast amounts of information without any return on our efforts. Not to shoot down the Final Exams (although I could do without them...), it was not until we reached out first Clinical Affiliations that we (at least myself and the several I talked with..) felt as if we have made progress as future professionals.
This posting may seem like I am complaining about all the work and that I hate what I am doing. On the contrary!! I love this stuff, and I smiled from ear to ear every day I went to work during those 10-weeks last fall. I knew that each day would present a new challenge and I began to remember information without even consciously attempting to extract it from the recesses of my 4 functioning brain cells! It is simply amazing what has happened to my classmates and myself over the past 15 months. This has truly been an eye-opening and enjoyable experience since the beginning. (did I mention the Final Exams..)

While everything in life may not be as challenging or as rewarding, I believe that we all can find the rewards from our work during the most unexpected times. For me, it's right about now.

Until next post...