All that talk about mountains in my previous post reminded me of a quote from Mulan by the Emperor: “No matter how the wind howls, the mountain cannot bow to it.” This is such a profound quote… good job Disney!

As mentioned in my previous post, my personal view of mountains other than its aesthetic beauty is by the time I reach my goal of becoming a PT, I will have clarity, knowledge and strength….strength as in willpower, strength as in determination, strength as in a humble ability to change lives.

Recently, I spoke on a health professions panel with three other students at my alma mater, Rutgers University in New Brunswick. This was an event held by the Honors College. The other three students were either in Med school or were headed there and I represented PT as a recently admitted student. It was truly an honor to speak there. One of the questions asked was if there was a single class that defined our success or failure for Med/PT/really any health professions school. The student (she) added, “did it make us feel that we were not cut out for these professions?” When it was my turn, I told her no, that there is not a single class or even group of classes which define your success. They may only speak a little your personal abilities. If you are determined to succeed and have the willpower, you can accomplish virtually anything. I then spoke about my experience finding an internship during undergrad. I chose two outpatient facilities. When I visited the first clinic, I sat down with the co-owner and she asked me what my GPA was. In comparison to the average PT school students applying to school, it was lower, but not terrible. When I told her my GPA, she told me that I would never get in to PT school with that GPA and that I might want to consider a different profession. I did not choose her facility for my internship, but I was grateful to her for her harsh honesty. It took me two years to finally get accepted to PT school, but I am finally in. This, to me, was half the battle. Throughout that time, I worked hard as a PT aide, eventually becoming one of the best aides the company had, and never gave up on my dream. I was resilient and you have to be when you get so many rejections and waitlist letters which eventually turned into rejections in the mail. So, no matter how the wind howls, even if harshly, the mountain can never bow to it. Akin to a mountain, with a firm base of shear strength, no matter what obstacles come in your way or no matter what people think of your capabilities, you cannot bow to the pressure, to the harsh words, to the challenge. That is your strength.