Okay...I'm finally coming back up for air. Thank you for your patience while I disappeared from the blogging world. For those of you who haven't heard by now, I passed my boards and am now an officially licensed Doctor of Physical Therapy! Woohoo! It's about stinking time! No more studying, no more stressing (about school), no more kissing butt to get the rotation I want, etc. Farewell to being a student!
I will start by posting our class president's speech from graduation. I think it gives a good summary of what our lives were like while we were trying to survive the program...
Friends, family, faculty, and class of 2010,
For the past three years, I have represented this amazing class. It has been a long, hard journey; but it has been an honor. So, on the behalf of the class of 2010, I’d like to commemorate all of you not in the caps and gowns, because you are all here deserving of honor.
Thank you to all of those husbands, wives, and significant others. You stood beside us every step of the way. Many of you, like my husband, prayed with us, reminding us that no matter how hard PT school was, we were right in the middle of God’s will. But you did more than that - Thank you for being our patients and our guinea pigs every time we learned a new technique. When we were sleep deprived, you smiled and nodded in response to our slurred speech. Thank you for letting us keep the lights on while we stayed up studying at 3 AM. They say true love knows no bounds, especially when there’s that much financial debt involved.
Thank you to all of our parents, brothers, and sisters. You are the examples we lived by. Thank you for understanding when we missed birthday celebrations during finals week. Thank you for letting us take all the Thanksgiving leftovers to keep us sustained for the next 2 weeks. Thank you listening to us babble and cry on the other end of the phone line. You stuck gas money in our pockets when we’re not looking. We are a byproduct of your love and support.
To the faculty. You are the reason this program is so strong and why it has made such a huge name for itself in the past few years.
• Dr. Laymon – our fearless leader. You taught us the most important part of physical therapy: how to bill our patients. And because of you, we all know how to survive a nuclear attack.
• Dr. Chung and Professor Matsuda for setting up our clinical affiliations, reminding us why we were studying so hard to begin with.
• Dr. Shore – for being the perfect introduction to a very difficult program.
• Dr. Lily – for your unwavering spunk and enthusiasm.
• Dr. Wong – We were all envious of your energy level. Thank you for your memorable sayings such as “Where my beakers at?” – or my personal favorite to describe a complicated patient – “Fibromyalgia with a hint of rabies.”
• Dr. Kumugai for your infectious laugh. Thank you for giving us those hugs that lifted us up and for telling us that everything is going to be fine.
To my fellow graduates, we overcame a Mount Everest of achievements. Because we spent more time together than we did at home, we were our own little family. We laughed and cried. We took road trips together, exploring the world. Our experiences together will last us for a lifetime.
I have no doubt in my mind that you will all be great physical therapists. On the back of our second year t-shirt was a print out of our names with the faculty names. And it had a famous quote from the movie Top Gun, “Up there with the best of the best.”
I encourage you all to seek the Lord. When you seek Him, you will become the best of the best.
So thank you, my friends and family, for supporting me in whatever way you did/could during the past 3 years. I know it was hard on me, and I can only imagine how hard it's been on you. But it means a lot to me to have such support and love behind me, and it helped me get through it.
So in recognition of saying good-bye to my student life, I want to make some changes to this blog. I'm not sure what I want to do yet, or how/when I'm going to do it. I made a few changes up on the top and side, but other than that, nothing too exciting. Stay tuned for more...
On to wedding talk...My mom came up last weekend to help us catch up on our now behind-schedule wedding planning. We got the save the dates finished (and should now be in your mailbox), and started working on the invitations. Jeff and I finally agreed, decided, and booked our honeymoon. Antigua, here we come! I'm still working on the endless details of this BIG day, and hopefully will find some free time here and there. But I'm not too optimistic. I know how much work goes into a wedding, especially in the final few months. And we're now under the 5 month mark. Yikes! And woohoo! Thank goodness I got so much done earlier in the planning process! Looking forward to the wedding events to come!
