Grad school: Not what I thought

I recently realized that I started this blog to "chronicle my time in grad school" (direct quote from me about two years ago), but lately I've written mostly about running and Christianity. That's okay because those topics are important to me and I never wanted to limit my blog to one area. However, my career is also important to me, so I thought I'd give an update on how physical therapy school is going.

I'm almost done with my second year of PT school. I passed my last lab practical ever yesterday! Tomorrow I have my last big test of April; after that, no tests until finals week in May! I can't believe I'm about to finish my second year of PT school. I can't wait to be done.

To be honest, grad school is actually easier than I thought it would be. I'm not saying it's easy, because I still have to work hard and I get stressed out. But I think my expectations were that it would be really difficult. Before I started, I had these images in my mind of staying up all night studying, poring over textbooks, and drinking lots of coffee to help me stay awake in class. Well the truth is I've never had to pull an all-nighter in grad school (although I did it quite a few time in undergrad), I stopped buying the textbooks after the first semester, and I only drink coffee occasionally now.

Honestly, some of my classes in undergrad were MUCH harder. Genetics, Organic Chemistry, and Cell Biology are a few of the classes that kicked my butt. I struggled through those classes and was happy when I managed to pull off B's in all of them. The only class in PT school that has come anywhere close in difficulty was Neuroanatomy, and I somehow got an A in it. Don't get me wrong- I'm learning a lot in my grad school classes, but they're definitely not as hard as I expected.

I think one of the main reasons that it's not as difficult as I thought is because physical therapy is practical. I've learned a lot about muscles and exercises and diseases and treatments, but it's been mostly big-picture concepts. I like that. When I was studying cells and organic compounds, it was hard for me to conceptualize what was happening in the body at such a small, intricate level. But I can visualize an exercise and determine what muscles are activated. It makes sense and it applies to real life. When we learn about diseases and treatments it's interesting because I know people with those diseases and I want to learn what treatments are best for them.

The things I've learned in PT school are practical, functional, and useful. To me, that makes it easier to learn, and so much more worthwhile!