PT School

What am I doing?

That's the thought that repeatedly runs through my head.

I've come to the realization that I'm going to have to go back to school. It's rather ironic. Just after I finished grad school, Yellowhed told me that it was only a matter of time until I went back to get my doctorate. My mom said the same thing. A number of other people did too.

I always brushed them off. I was absolutely exhausted. I enjoyed having free time, and a normal life finally. Going home after work and being able to build a workbench, to go to the gym, to go hiking...it's awesome. Going home after work to sit in front of a computer for the next 5 hours writing a paper on gonorrhea? Not so much.

After spending months looking around for jobs online though, I've finally come to the conclusion that I am going to have to go back to school if I'm going to be able to do what I want.

Physical therapy school is going to have to happen.

I need to be able to support my family. Physical therapy allows me to do that. A doctorate allows me to teach at the college level someday, something that has always been a dream of mine.

So now, here I am looking at PT schools. Of course I missed the deadline for taking classes this coming fall by a couple of months, something I didn't realize until I met with the Admissions Chair of one of my top PT school picks.

Me: "Uh, hi. I'd like to talk with you about signing up for PT school."

Him: "Have you completed your PTCAS application yet?"

Me: [in my head] "What the heck is that?"

Me: "Ummm. No."

Him: "Well, there's really not much that I can do for you then."

Yep. That's right. I walked into PT school thinking that signing up for classes was similar to signing up to take a medical terminology class at the community college.

Sigh.

Now I know better though. A GRE, a biology class with lab, 40 hours of shadowing a physical therapy school, 3 letters of recommendation, and a personal essay are what's standing in my way now.

We'll see what happens.