These next four months will be what I affectionately refer to as the home stretch. Though as I mentioned, I have been admitted to UIC and gave them my money and all, technically I am not actually admitted until I finish my last two prerequisites with a C or better. Easy enough, right? Well, not so fast my friend. These last two classes look like they're going to be a doozy. Physics 2 and Chemistry 2. I'm in class four nights a week, Monday through Thursday. Hence why I am writing this on a Friday. And even then, I've already done a little bit of physics homework.
The reality is that I'm going to have almost no social life for the next few months, that, and I am going to have to be really good about time management. Sundays used to be my homework day, and now, it will probably be Saturday AND Sunday. Oh well, such is life. After I grind this out, I have an entire summer of travel to look forward to.
Speaking of travel, Megan and I have almost certainly postponed our Kilimanjaro trip. We both got super excited about the idea of heading to Tanzania and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, but after considering the cost, and our various other future endeavors, we both (separately) came to the conclusion that its probably not a good idea. I was relieved. Don't get me wrong, this trip would be a once in a lifetime event, but we're talking close to $5000 for one trip. Megan, like me, is planning on going back to school this Fall. Having already worked her way through two Master's degrees, she is looking at several PhD programs. So between the two of us, we're about to have a LOT of debt to our names. Kili will remain on our short list, but there are plenty of other adventures we can have for a lot less than 5G. My guess is we'll end up in Colorado for at least a few weeks, adding some more names to our 14er lists.
Beyond that, my summer is pretty open so far. Of course its that time for our bi-annual mother-daughter trip. We're getting together next weekend to hammer out some details, but as far as destination, we are headed to the Pacific Northwest, making stops in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. Mike has talked about wanting to do a trip, but we haven't really tossed around any ideas. It would be nice to do a "big" trip of some kind, but we'll see. I also want to do some kind of trip for my mom's 60th birthday, which is in September. It sounds like part of the family is headed to Charleston again, so I might just tag along on that trip, and plan a lades spa day or dinner one night. Some other options...my friend Holly just found out she got a fellowship position for a non-profit organization called HELP. She'll either be headed to Uganda or Belize, and selfishly, I've got my fingers crossed for Belize. In the meantime, I'm keeping my eyes and ears open for any other type of adventure.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Applied, Admitted, Deposited, Enrolled?
And now for some of the catching up...I mentioned I decided to make a career change and settled on physical therapy. Never in my life had I considered a career in the health sciences, except perhaps when I was 11 and thought it might be cool to become a Vet. Turns out, I'm not much into blood, hence why I never considered medical school, or even nursing. Where the idea came from actually started with Michael Vick. You all know that story, so I don't need to revisit it, but when all that happened, I started feeling like I should be doing something that contributed more towards society. I thought about working with animals, but decided to take some time to think about things. **On a related note, I became, and am still an active volunteer at PAWS Chicago, where I have since adopted a dog (more about her later).
The desire only grew stronger and I started considering other options more seriously. The first real idea I had was to become a personal trainer and eventually open my own business. I've always been passionate about sports and fitness and felt I could help people transform their lives and bodies. In order to become a personal trainer, really, you just need to become certified by one of the main certification bodies, which means simply passing a test. But, I would want to have a strong educational background too, so I looked into some Master's programs in kinesiology. During that process, somehow I came across physical therapy, which I saw as a logical extension of the personal training idea, but a higher level. I checked out what it would take to become a physical therapist, and I figured if I was going to school for a minimum of 2 years for a M.S in Kinesiology, that frankly, I might as well go to school for 3 years and pursue a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree. The deciding factor came down to career prospects. Yes, a PT degree pretty much locks you into becoming a physical therapist, but there are so many diverse settings and patient groups you can work with. It is a more specialized degree, but I felt it would open more doors and provide more direction than a Master's degree in some other field. The more I looked into physical therapy as a profession, the more attractive it became. Some recent publication (I forget which) named physical therapy 2nd only to clergy in terms of highest job satisfaction, as reported by workers themselves. The job market is strong, and PT's make pretty good money. It will be a challenging 3 year program, but I feel confident that I will be successful. Am I 100% sure this is the right decision? No, I wish I could say I was. But, 90% is good enough for me. If this doesn't work out, I'll figure something else out, but I'm not planning on that happening.
Applied - I applied to 4 schools: University of Indianapolis, Northwestern University, University of Illinois-Chicago, and University of Florida. Of the four, UIC was my top choice, based on a combination of cost and strength of the program. According to some US News and World Report rankings, UIC's program is #15 in the nation. For what its worth, Northwestern is #7, Florida #15 and UIndy #41. Had none of these worked out, I would have been scrambling for programs who had due dates after January 1st, 2012.
Accepted - UIndy and UIC. I was put on an "alternate" list at Northwestern. The shitty part about that is when I was in high school, I applied to Northwestern's journalism school, which pretty much everyone knows is the best in the country. I thought I might want to be a journalist (one of about five different majors I had, by the way), so I made Northwestern my "reach" school. I was a decent writer, but definitely not Medill material, especially coming out of high school. I'm sure you can figure out where the story went. Flash forward to 2011 and I thought I had a good shot at getting accepted to Northwestern's PT program for a few reasons. First, they admit a larger class than UIC (70-ish compared to 54 at UIC). Second, I had done just about as well as anyone could expect in terms of all the metrics they look at, such as undergrad GPA, prerequisite GPA, GRE scores, etc. Just about the only thing I could have done differently was have a more relevant undergrad major. Most PT applicants majored in kinesiology, biology, or something along those lines. But, as I learned, most classes of applicants had a least a handful of "career changers." I even felt I had a very well written personal essay this time, compared to God knows what I wrote when I applied to Medill. So, yeah, I was disappointed to hear I was on an alternate list. I'm not ashamed to admit that getting into Northwestern would have been all about the name. The Northwestern PT program is a part of the Feinberg School of Medicine, and something about that had a nice ring to it. I told myself if I got in, I would buy a t-shirt just to wear around the house, even if I didn't decide to go there. Silly.
Anyways, I am still waiting to hear back from Florida, but that was mostly a backup in the event I didn't get into UIC or Northwestern. My co-worker Dan, will surely be disappointed that I'm not going to be a Gator, but going to Florida doesn't make a whole lot of sense at age 30. Age 22, maybe, but not age 30.
Deposited - UIC. I told Northwestern they could suck it. Really it was more like "Please take me off your alternate list as I will be accepting an offer of admission from UIC." I will be a Flame! UIC DPT Class of 2015! I'm mostly over the Northwestern thing because the odds of me actually going there were slim. UIC offers a much better opportunity in my opinion, and costs about 1/3 as less! I'll do awesome work under the UIC name.
Enrolled - not officially yet, not until August, and not until I finish my last two prereq' (Chemistry and Physics).
So, there ya go. Those few things make up pretty much of the last year of my life, give or take a few other noteworthy events, which I'll talk about eventually. It seems like getting accepted to PT school was the end of a pretty long, grueling process, but I know its just the beginning.
The desire only grew stronger and I started considering other options more seriously. The first real idea I had was to become a personal trainer and eventually open my own business. I've always been passionate about sports and fitness and felt I could help people transform their lives and bodies. In order to become a personal trainer, really, you just need to become certified by one of the main certification bodies, which means simply passing a test. But, I would want to have a strong educational background too, so I looked into some Master's programs in kinesiology. During that process, somehow I came across physical therapy, which I saw as a logical extension of the personal training idea, but a higher level. I checked out what it would take to become a physical therapist, and I figured if I was going to school for a minimum of 2 years for a M.S in Kinesiology, that frankly, I might as well go to school for 3 years and pursue a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree. The deciding factor came down to career prospects. Yes, a PT degree pretty much locks you into becoming a physical therapist, but there are so many diverse settings and patient groups you can work with. It is a more specialized degree, but I felt it would open more doors and provide more direction than a Master's degree in some other field. The more I looked into physical therapy as a profession, the more attractive it became. Some recent publication (I forget which) named physical therapy 2nd only to clergy in terms of highest job satisfaction, as reported by workers themselves. The job market is strong, and PT's make pretty good money. It will be a challenging 3 year program, but I feel confident that I will be successful. Am I 100% sure this is the right decision? No, I wish I could say I was. But, 90% is good enough for me. If this doesn't work out, I'll figure something else out, but I'm not planning on that happening.
Applied - I applied to 4 schools: University of Indianapolis, Northwestern University, University of Illinois-Chicago, and University of Florida. Of the four, UIC was my top choice, based on a combination of cost and strength of the program. According to some US News and World Report rankings, UIC's program is #15 in the nation. For what its worth, Northwestern is #7, Florida #15 and UIndy #41. Had none of these worked out, I would have been scrambling for programs who had due dates after January 1st, 2012.
Accepted - UIndy and UIC. I was put on an "alternate" list at Northwestern. The shitty part about that is when I was in high school, I applied to Northwestern's journalism school, which pretty much everyone knows is the best in the country. I thought I might want to be a journalist (one of about five different majors I had, by the way), so I made Northwestern my "reach" school. I was a decent writer, but definitely not Medill material, especially coming out of high school. I'm sure you can figure out where the story went. Flash forward to 2011 and I thought I had a good shot at getting accepted to Northwestern's PT program for a few reasons. First, they admit a larger class than UIC (70-ish compared to 54 at UIC). Second, I had done just about as well as anyone could expect in terms of all the metrics they look at, such as undergrad GPA, prerequisite GPA, GRE scores, etc. Just about the only thing I could have done differently was have a more relevant undergrad major. Most PT applicants majored in kinesiology, biology, or something along those lines. But, as I learned, most classes of applicants had a least a handful of "career changers." I even felt I had a very well written personal essay this time, compared to God knows what I wrote when I applied to Medill. So, yeah, I was disappointed to hear I was on an alternate list. I'm not ashamed to admit that getting into Northwestern would have been all about the name. The Northwestern PT program is a part of the Feinberg School of Medicine, and something about that had a nice ring to it. I told myself if I got in, I would buy a t-shirt just to wear around the house, even if I didn't decide to go there. Silly.
Anyways, I am still waiting to hear back from Florida, but that was mostly a backup in the event I didn't get into UIC or Northwestern. My co-worker Dan, will surely be disappointed that I'm not going to be a Gator, but going to Florida doesn't make a whole lot of sense at age 30. Age 22, maybe, but not age 30.
Deposited - UIC. I told Northwestern they could suck it. Really it was more like "Please take me off your alternate list as I will be accepting an offer of admission from UIC." I will be a Flame! UIC DPT Class of 2015! I'm mostly over the Northwestern thing because the odds of me actually going there were slim. UIC offers a much better opportunity in my opinion, and costs about 1/3 as less! I'll do awesome work under the UIC name.
Enrolled - not officially yet, not until August, and not until I finish my last two prereq' (Chemistry and Physics).
So, there ya go. Those few things make up pretty much of the last year of my life, give or take a few other noteworthy events, which I'll talk about eventually. It seems like getting accepted to PT school was the end of a pretty long, grueling process, but I know its just the beginning.
Drats
Well, this blows. I had a pretty nice (old) post that I must have deleted in my cleanup efforts, but it painted a really nice picture of where I was at in my life last summer...or perhaps it was the summer before that. In any event, I'll probably try to recreate that as best as possible sometime soon, because a lot of the content is still relevant. A while back I made a decision that I was going to go in a different direction with my life and career. After more than 5 years of working at Scoutware, I decided it was time for a new challenge, and I set my sights on a career on physical therapy.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
I'm not very good at keeping promises
I'n not very good at keeping promises. Clearly. I looked back at when I actually started this blog and it was 2009. The last time I wrote an entry was about this time last year. Writing is something I love doing, and yet I couldn't manage to write ONE thing in the last year. All I have are three words: Piss poor effort.
Why now, why again? Writing helps me. It helps me clear my head, and figure things out. And, just like many of the last few years, this year is going to be big for me. A LOT of things have happened since my last post and I'm excited to share them. If you know me, you already know why. For one, I've read more books in the last 3 weeks than I've probably read in the last 3 years, excluding textbooks. That's not really a big deal, but more of a general sign of where I'm headed. Reading will be one thing I do much more of in 2012 and beyond. So will writing, I hope.
I won't promise to keep this up, since we've seen how well that's worked for me, but I'm going to really try. I'm reading an interesting book right now called 'Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything (http://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Remembering-Everything/dp/159420229X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326591111&sr=1-1)
Its basically about the author's quest to "train" for the US memory championships and about how the art of memory used to be highly valued, and taught, just as you might any other subject in ancient times. I'm only halfway through, but one of the points he's made about our memory declining was not only the invention of writing, but virtual memories, such as blogs, have really removed the need to remember anything. We can catalog our entire lives (which one person is literally doing in the book). That's not my goal with this blog per se, although I'm sure it will be fun to look back at the person I was a few years from now. For me, its more about working a few things out from time to time, and giving you a better glimpse of what's inside my head. I have a renewed ambition in several areas, and I can't wait to get going.
Why now, why again? Writing helps me. It helps me clear my head, and figure things out. And, just like many of the last few years, this year is going to be big for me. A LOT of things have happened since my last post and I'm excited to share them. If you know me, you already know why. For one, I've read more books in the last 3 weeks than I've probably read in the last 3 years, excluding textbooks. That's not really a big deal, but more of a general sign of where I'm headed. Reading will be one thing I do much more of in 2012 and beyond. So will writing, I hope.
I won't promise to keep this up, since we've seen how well that's worked for me, but I'm going to really try. I'm reading an interesting book right now called 'Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything (http://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Remembering-Everything/dp/159420229X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326591111&sr=1-1)
Its basically about the author's quest to "train" for the US memory championships and about how the art of memory used to be highly valued, and taught, just as you might any other subject in ancient times. I'm only halfway through, but one of the points he's made about our memory declining was not only the invention of writing, but virtual memories, such as blogs, have really removed the need to remember anything. We can catalog our entire lives (which one person is literally doing in the book). That's not my goal with this blog per se, although I'm sure it will be fun to look back at the person I was a few years from now. For me, its more about working a few things out from time to time, and giving you a better glimpse of what's inside my head. I have a renewed ambition in several areas, and I can't wait to get going.
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