To fully explain what personal characteristics led me to pursue a professional physical therapy I need to give you the main motivating factor. At the very young age of seven a little bug was placed in my ear to become a physical therapist and since then I never looked back. Jackie Thompson the man who I thank for showing me the light and joys of working with someone who was limited in their mobility. Jackie was in a car accident that left him a paraplegic, and even though he couldn’t communicate to the world like we all take for granted. We were able to communicate and learn from each other. Every Sunday we would load up and head out to ride horses with Jackie’s family, and even though I loved horses and riding. I preferred to do a few less runs and then go hang out with Jackie. I would feed him and then ask his mother what he was doing in physical therapy and proceed to do his exercises with him. That’s the back-story on why and will always be determined to become a physical therapist. Even when the process looks bleak, I think about Jackie and realize even though he couldn’t walk and talk or move with control, he never gave up.
I have always been for the underdog even when it wasn’t the cool thing to do. Even in grade school, playing power rangers with the special education kids and then in high school when the same boy wanted to play pokeman. I did it because I knew I lived a truly blessed life because I could do the normal day to day things weren’t a struggle.
Also in the same light I love helping people and seeing people achieve goals that weren’t always tangible. Teaching Bill things like just talking to people or helping him out during the first grade was rewarding. Jackie had incredible strength left in his left leg and even though he couldn’t control the leg anymore, placing a football at just the right height and distance from his leg. Jackie could punt that ball as well as any college punter could, and the simple smile and giggle that would emerge from the normally quite and non-animated person was satisfaction