Physical Therapy
My Shadowing Experience
My sister, my mother, and my father are all teachers. Growing up, teaching was the only career I really knew anything about, and the only career I thought I could consider. However, the idea of being a teacher never really excited me. As an athlete, I am constantly surrounded by injuries and am learning about the human body’s ability to endure harsh physical activity. The idea of how the body recovers from overuse, trauma, and other physical issues has always caught my interest. I just never really knew how to apply that to my future.
At the end of my sophomore year, I was at a field hockey camp where I collided with another player and split my eyebrow open. The wound required stitches along my eyebrow and a break from any physical activity, but it also brought up discussions with my peers about injuries they had experienced due to athletics, training, or just daily life. Ranging from a torn ACL, a concussion, or a simple twisted ankle, the recovery processes were all different. The processes I paid the most attention to were the ones that required physical therapy.
Physical therapy rapidly became something that caught my interest and something that I could see myself doing as a career. I began to look into shadowing opportunities at physical therapy centers, and plunged into a shadowing position during the summer going into my junior year. The first day I walked in to the clinic, I took note of the exercise machines, medicine balls, weights, and other athletic equipment right away. The second thing I noticed was the energetic atmosphere and how happy every employee and patient was to be there; I already felt at ease at a place that was so new to me. Over the course of the next year, I spent my Thursday nights working closely with multiple physical therapists and their patients to further explore the field. Not only was it fascinating to see the science behind how patients recover, but it was also interesting to watch the emotional changes in patients over the course of their recovery.
The processes for each patient were so different, and each person’s treatment had to be approached accordingly. For example, a seven year old named Leah would wince every time her foot hit the ground, but through her treatment she was quickly jumping around the clinic and laughing with everyone. The physical therapists knew that if they made her laugh during her exercises, she would perform them much better, so she would laugh up a storm while executing perfect slides. There was also the mom named Julie who could barely raise her arm when she started, but through deep friction, stretches, and exercise was throwing around balls better than some baseball players. Personally, she was my favorite. We would talk every Thursday night away and I would examine her progress each week until eventually she completed her treatment- as happy as I was for her, it was a little sad that she was gone. Every time a patient left the center for good, it was a bittersweet feeling; on one hand, there was a sense of accomplishment for seeing a patient grow throughout his or her recovery, but the connections I formed with the patients throughout the process were always difficult to let go of. Thanks to the physical therapists, patients and experiences at the clinic, I know that a career in physical therapy is where I belong.
At the end of my sophomore year, I was at a field hockey camp where I collided with another player and split my eyebrow open. The wound required stitches along my eyebrow and a break from any physical activity, but it also brought up discussions with my peers about injuries they had experienced due to athletics, training, or just daily life. Ranging from a torn ACL, a concussion, or a simple twisted ankle, the recovery processes were all different. The processes I paid the most attention to were the ones that required physical therapy.
Physical therapy rapidly became something that caught my interest and something that I could see myself doing as a career. I began to look into shadowing opportunities at physical therapy centers, and plunged into a shadowing position during the summer going into my junior year. The first day I walked in to the clinic, I took note of the exercise machines, medicine balls, weights, and other athletic equipment right away. The second thing I noticed was the energetic atmosphere and how happy every employee and patient was to be there; I already felt at ease at a place that was so new to me. Over the course of the next year, I spent my Thursday nights working closely with multiple physical therapists and their patients to further explore the field. Not only was it fascinating to see the science behind how patients recover, but it was also interesting to watch the emotional changes in patients over the course of their recovery.
The processes for each patient were so different, and each person’s treatment had to be approached accordingly. For example, a seven year old named Leah would wince every time her foot hit the ground, but through her treatment she was quickly jumping around the clinic and laughing with everyone. The physical therapists knew that if they made her laugh during her exercises, she would perform them much better, so she would laugh up a storm while executing perfect slides. There was also the mom named Julie who could barely raise her arm when she started, but through deep friction, stretches, and exercise was throwing around balls better than some baseball players. Personally, she was my favorite. We would talk every Thursday night away and I would examine her progress each week until eventually she completed her treatment- as happy as I was for her, it was a little sad that she was gone. Every time a patient left the center for good, it was a bittersweet feeling; on one hand, there was a sense of accomplishment for seeing a patient grow throughout his or her recovery, but the connections I formed with the patients throughout the process were always difficult to let go of. Thanks to the physical therapists, patients and experiences at the clinic, I know that a career in physical therapy is where I belong.