Personal Narrative: A Career In Physical Therapy

I’ve always been interested in Veterinary Medicine, but since the Veterinarian was too busy to do my interview, I moved on to my next major that I would love to do, which is being a physical therapist. I asked a family friend if he had time for me to interview him, he said “yes, I would love to.” Getting out of my GMC truck, on a hot afternoon I felt butterflies in my stomach. Walking through the doors of this big building, the front desk sending me to this long hallway that leads up to his office had me so anxious to ask him questions since this is my first interview. As I knocked and opened the door, Mr. Garza was seated at his desk looking like if he was waiting for me all afternoon and told me to come in. Finally, I sat down with a pen
Standing up straight, ready to write, I asked him one of my very first questions that I had written on a piece of paper. What inspired you to become a physical therapist? Then Mr. Garza talked, he said, “when I tore my meniscus and posterior cruciate ligament during my senior year in football I was crushed, it was one of the few things that I truly loved and it was gone for good in a split second, faster than you can say my last name. At the time of my injury I didn’t understand what I was going through, but as I became educated in the field I now know that I was going through depression and different stages of coping with a sports injury. After being diagnosed with a multiple tears in my knee I had to undergo arthroscopic surgery to repair the ligaments, which would put me out of sports and activity for 6 weeks minimum. After surgery I was prescribed multiple therapeutic options, which included an automatic icing machine and physical therapy at the sports medicine clinic. Attending therapy sessions at the sports medicine clinic comforted me and while I was there I became intrigued by the work of the therapist, as he had to customize my therapy depending on the strength and range of motion I had after every session.” Breathtaking, I cried a little bit while interviewing him. Mr. Garza is a very strong man who didn’t get to follow his dream because of a sports injury, but he’s very
Mr. Garza laughed and said, “ Now that I’m a physical therapist I feel that I am a very strong writer and I tend to do my best work under pressure (last minute) but this wasn’t always the case because as a high school student and a college student I dreaded writing and I wasn’t very good at it, but going through the years, college shaped and trained me to be a better writer than I was.” I sat there in shock because of how he just explained to me that he worked better under pressure. After he saw my face reaction, he explained to me that it only works for some people so if you do not work good under pressure he advised me not to do it, that’s just how he would get his writing assignments