Thursday, March 5, 2009

It's ok to follow your passion


I've been going through a really large life struggle for quite some time... around 2.5 years to be exact. Only recently I have decided that it's time to face my "fears" and do what will make me happy.


More recently over the past few months I've been undergoing a huge life change with deciding to no longer pursue a career within education, my first degree.


It started out small, but I gained enough courage and now I'm getting somewhere. I wanted to write, because, I feel like everyone needs a reminder now and again that it's ok to change your mind and follow your dreams.


When one door closes, another one opens.


Everything with teaching for me was so hard. Nothing came easy. No long-term sub positions, no jobs, no interviews, etc. Ever since I decided that I wanted to follow my passion of fitness and go back to school for Exercise Science... things have been happening. Right now they are small, but to me... they are so significant. That maybe God does have His hand on my life afterall, and maybe there is a reason I've gone through everything I have to get to this point.

So here's a couple small, but important things that have happened thus far:

1. I got my Spinning certification.
- This may seem unimportant but the truth is, I had been wanting to get certified for over 2 years and NO certification workshops have come closer than a 4 hour drive, that is until March 2008. I was blessed with the opportunity to get certified and the workshop was only 15 minutes from my house! After all I've seen since then, I truly believe that this class happened for a reason. I was meant to be there.

2. I applied for, and got accepted to graduate school to pursue my Master's in Exercise Science.
- Again, you may be thinking, yeah woo, everyone goes to grad school... BUT, I have no official schooling in Exercise Science, so the fact that they believed I can do it, is a big deal. I'm excited.

3. I've been self-teaching myself exercise physiology and retaining about 60-70% of what I read.
- This may seem like a "bad grade" when you think percentage wise, but you know what? I am reading a text book, and taking notes. That is it. No lectures, no real world examples, nada. Just myself and a book. And for that, 60-70% is pretty damn good.

4. I got my own Spinning classes. (Yes plural!)
- The local university has a spinning studio (that's where I first fell in love) and they hire certified students to teach. Since I'm no longer a student I shouldn't be able to teach-- but I am. I am teaching 4 classes a week and I absolutely wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I am so lucky to be able to do something I love and get paid for it.

5. Lastly, my big news is the YMCA.
- Very soon I will be also teaching some classes at the YMCA. I am so excited. When you teach 2 classes a week you get a free membership, woohoo! I will have a lot of opportunities for work this summer with summer camps, boot camps, "The Y Way" (Weightloss program like Biggest Loser only it's safe and effective. I HATE the BL, but that's another rant on it's on.) and other things.

I am so excited. The best part is this. After 6 months of employment the YMCA will pay for me to get ANY certification I want. (They will pay for half of a personal trainer cert) That means I can go to any Y Certification program (or really anything!!) and they will pay for it. They will pay for me to be a yoga teacher, a pilates teacher, resistence bands, cardio, step, etc, Silver Sneakers, etc, etc, etc. This is amazing. This is... this is exactly what I needed.

I closed one door, and so many small and great things are happening so far.

I am really glad I decided to follow my heart.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Welcome!

Welcome to From the Classroom to the Clinic! This blog has been a thought in process for quite some time, and I am finally bringing it to reality.

When I decided that I wanted to change my entire life and become a physical therapist it was a really scary, although exciting, thing. I spent hours on the internet looking up all the information I could about physical therapy and the schooling that you go through. Although I found some great information sources (I personally recommend the forums over at www.studentdoctor.net - they are great!) I was surprised that there wasn't really that much out there.

So, with that in mind I decided that I wanted to document my entire experience of physical therapy schooling from the moment I decided I was going to change my life (before I knew PT was the answer) all the way through to my graduation day (I hope!)

I only hope to shed some light on the wonderful world of physical therapy through this and document my own struggles and victories as I go through this amazing learning experience.

Come, join me!