Hello everyone, this is my essay for admissions to a physical therapy program. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! I would like to make sure that it is relevant to the prompt, flows nicely, and grammar help. I'm also about 300 characters over so I need to shorten it but I'm not sure where I should.
Please and thank you!
"Use your own words to create a personal essay that includes responses to the question below. Some programs require an additional essay question. Visit the individual program pages for instructions.
Which personal characteristics and motivating factors have led you to pursue the profession of physical therapy?"
It was certainly a shock, but it was necessary for me to maintain my composure. On my first day volunteering at Shriners Hospital for Children, I met a 17 year old who had 90 percent of his body burned and needless to say he was lucky to be alive. Week after week I continued to sit in on his sessions and felt the agony he felt even as he tried to do mundane tasks. Week after week, right before my eyes I watched this young man recover and blossom into an extremely outgoing and confident person, ready to tackle the rest of his life. He and the plethora of patients I encountered in my volunteer experience had wonderful success stories due to the work of amazing people; physical therapists. Not only at Shriners, but in other settings I have observed the persistence, determination, and care that the physical therapists, my mentors, possess in such a demanding environment. It is these very qualities that resulted in so many patients getting the progress and results they desire. Over time my mentors have been able to draw these attributes out of me more than I even knew I possessed. These experiences molded me into a person I believe would be a great asset to a physical therapy program and one day a great physical therapist. The possibilities of people that I work with and patients that I help are endless in my mind. I am ecstatic to hit the ground running with this career in this exciting and flourishing field.
The roots of my passion for physical therapy can be found in the love I have for dance. I was by all definitions horrible, yet my longing for it was unfathomable. It was my passion, my zeal, my drug. I danced my heart out when I was behind the crowd, and three years later I danced just as hard when I finally made it in the spotlight. Around the time my dancing skyrocketed, fortuitously I was reunited with an old friend of mine. He was a kinesiology major, more than well versed in anatomy and physiology and wanted to use what he has learned to make me an even better dancer. Right before my eyes, I saw changes, changes in my body and dancing that took three years in high school started to happen in only months. The doors to a new world were opened to me, and it was a world of kinesiology and physical therapy. I knew that I had finally found my calling.
Originally a psychology major in college, all I knew was that I wanted to help others in some measurable way. After finding physical therapy, I discovered that I want to inspire others and change lives. For example, teaching a patient how to lift their arm again, to me, is not as simple as it sounds. To me, lifting one's arm again could mean an athlete's return to sports, an elderly woman can reach some food on the top shelf, or a new father can pick up his child. It is so much more than gaining physical abilities to move in ways one used to. THAT is what I mean by changing lives. If I as a physical therapist can inspire someone to regain and surpass their former physical abilities, I believe it can transform someone's life drastically.
I switched to kinesiology beginning my fourth year of college. Feeling behind, I meticulously planned out the rest of my undergraduate classes, and before I knew it I was finally filling out graduation forms and a PTCAS application to take the concluding steps for my career. My fervor for dance taught me the importance of patience and hard work for a craft that I loved, qualities which brought out the sweetest fruits of my own labor. Being patient through the times where I was not sure of my career led me to find a new passion I know I can do day in and day out. I was more assiduous in kinesiology classes than any psychology class I took, and more importantly, I enjoyed each class wholeheartedly. Soon I was well versed in anatomy and physiology, and eventually kinesiology, therapeutic modalities, and exercise physiology. The more I learned, the more I loved the field, and in turn I continued to yearn to learn. There is a saying in the dance community; "Stay hungry, stay humble." It means to never believe you are done learning. There is ALWAYS room to grow and better ourselves through new learning experiences. This is a philosophy I abide to in my daily life, and I hope to bring in the field to my fellow colleagues and more importantly, my patients to fuel a willingness to be better both physically and mentally.
As the great Confucius once said, "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." I look back on all my experiences and how it built me into a person who is more persistent, determined, caring, patient, and hard working. Yet, my journey cannot be considered "work", because I ended up loving every single piece of "work" this journey brought me to. I do what I love, and I love what I do, and my passion is physical therapy.
