Induction Ceremony - warmly welcomed

Two really nice things happened last week: I got to know my fellow students a little better and I was inducted into the Physical Therapy profession.

In class last week all 26 PT students had to teach something for 10 minutes that was meaningful and not related to Physical Therapy. It felt like a "show and tell" session. I was taught: how to make fry bread and tortillas, how to replace break drums, how to draw an elephant and make an elephant noise, how to hold and take care of box turtles, how to fly fish, how to make beer (including samples!!! - and no worries it was after 10am), a lesson on the history of tea, how to DJ a radio show, how to use jujitsu, how to set up a river rafting trip, how to train a dog for search and rescue, how to swing dance, break dance and line dance, some useful tricks with the English language, the five throws in basketball; and me, I taught everyone how to find fossils in New Mexico. Specifically, I taught my class how to find dinosaur bones from the Jurassic Morrison formation and ammonites from the Cretaceous Mancos formation. I actually borrowed some spectacular specimens from the Geology Department.

Then, last Friday was my official welcome into the Physical Therapy profession. It was a lovely ceremony that was attended by the entire PT department including all the professors and all three classes and their families. Each class read an oath that promised to serve the PT profession competently and honestly and we were gifted with a tool of the profession - gait belts. My two sweeties, Stephen and Emily, and my best friend, Carla were at my induction and they got to meet my fellow students and teachers. I have never heard of an induction ceremony for students but, I think it is a terrific idea, welcoming beginners into a healing profession.

I sure like this softer and warmer side of science.

Grateful Habit

I completed the first month of school. It has been said that if you do something new for 30 days it can become a habit because it start to feel comfortable. Yes, school feels pretty comfortable to me now.

Being the class prez is still a little bit odd. But, I do know how to communicate, organize and motivate folks to circle the wagons. My main job (as it have been explained to me) will be to get the class to raise money to help the upper class with graduation fees, have fun, team build and outreach to the community. Luckily everyone in the class is "on board" to help me! Our first events are a Happy Hour and helping our fellow PT-student couple move into their new house.

My course work is considered review. I will be diving into the deep challenging work of learning anatomy and orthopedics in just a few weeks. But, my problem is that I haven't had a lot of these review courses such as: Pharmacology, Biomechanics, Kinesiology and Biochemistry. I am scrambling to get the gist of it all. Pharmacology is really interesting and I am having lots of ah-ha moments. I am wishing I had paid more attention 25 years ago in my physics courses for Biomechanics and Kinesiology (oh well). Biochemistry is rather mysterious with all those drawings of circular molecular structures that have rather limited elemental compounds - C, N, O, H and sometimes P.

I am feeling a little bit muddled with it all and hoping that somehow the patterns and connections will emerge before midterms in October, but it is still really wonderful to be in the classroom and at the university. I am so grateful for this experience and opportunity to just be in this life learning new habits.

A Group of Normal Folks

It is nice to be around like-minded people. It makes me feel normal, which of course is an illusion. I have come to understand that there is no such thing as "normal" - like normal childhood, normal job, normal lovership, normal family or normal life. But, it is nice to feel that way when I am amongst my peers in school.

All my classmates are good students (26 of us picked from about 300 applicants), we all have a strong sense of service to others and are geeky anatomy nerds who can't wait to get into the lab and start learning the body's structure and inner workings. But what I really am liking about my classmates is their genuine concern about feelings and everyone strives to let each other know that they are appreciated. In the three weeks I have been in school I have gotten little e-messages from my classmates like: "so glad you are in my class", "you are really great", "thank you for being here", "i really appreciate you" and "thanks for being part of our team".

We 26 students are going to be together as a unit until the end of our graduate program and everyone is getting to know each other and create a tight network of support. I find it be unique in my life but, it sure feels normal to me.

Oh and by-the-way, I was voted as class president.