Thursday

Thursday's are good. It means we're past Wednesday, which is my busiest day, and practically to the weekend. Plus, it's only 11 in the morning and I already have my physiology exam done and out of the way. It feels nice to take the exam the day it opens.

Spencer and I have been working on putting together our schedules for next semester since registration is coming up in about a week. It looks like another 19 credit hour semester for me, but I have officially figured everything out so I can get all my classes done in time AND have a summer term off. For a while I thought I would have to take classes next spring and summer terms, which would be rough. I don't mind taking just spring term. It's kind of strange being at this point in our education. I'm down to two semesters and one term of classes after this! I'll also have a semester of student teaching, but that's got to be easier than a 19 credit class load. Next year at this time we should be hearing back from medical and PT schools for interviews. We hope. Spencer will start his MCAT prep course this January and I should think about getting prepared for the GRE at some point. Really, what does the GRE have to do with physical therapy school? Nothing. I'll probably be taking that next spring or summer though, so I should start working on vocab words.

I mentioned in my last post that I'm done with my education class. It was a block class. The class was so different from what I'm used to that I didn't really like it. It just didn't seem very academic. We learned about teaching strategies and classroom management. Overall it was good, though. I am still glad that I changed my major, because if something gets in the way of physical therapy school I do think I'd enjoy teaching, but it has helped me be more determined to find a way to make PT school work with Med school. I guess the biggest realization that I've had is that teaching takes a lot of time. Sure, you get summers off and you get a nice Christmas break, but to really be a good teacher there is so much prep time that goes on at home and before and after school. I know some people do it, but I won't be able to teach when we have little kids. Before the youngest is school age, I just won't be willing to take that much time away from my kids for teaching. I think as a physical therapist I'd really be able to work part time and leave work at work. Plus, I love studying about the body and PT school will teach me tons. Other biology classes are good, but not nearly as interesting to me as studying anatomy and physiology type stuff. 

I've been working on making a list of schools for each of us to apply to. The trick will be getting into schools within an hour of each other. I don't really want to drive more than 30 minutes each way every day. Ideally, we'll both be accepted to schools in the same city, but that's less likely. Right now the goal school for each of us is University of Michigan. Spencer would be at the Ann Arbor campus and I'd be at the Flint campus, but it looks like there are some nice towns with less-expensive housing between the two. I just have to find a time to squeeze in a couple extra prerequisites and at least 100 more shadowing hours with a physical therapist or two. I'm excited to see where we end up two years from now.