Summary of 47th Mary McMillan Lecture
Stop for a just a second and think about yourself in the next 40-50 years. Imagine what your life looks like as an elderly person. Can you imagine yourself traveling the world, seeing sights you’ve never dreamed of and being able to keep up with your grandkids at an amusement park? If not, how do you get to that vision you see? What if I told you that Physical Therapist may be the answer.
Life expectancy has steadily increased over the years and a large portion of our population is over the age of 65.1 In the article Our Future Selves: Unprecedented Opportunities Carol B. Lewis speaks about the geriatric population and how important physical therapy is for those individuals. She discussed how current …show more content…
Ray Bradbury got it right when he said, “Love what you do and do what you love.”3 In essence, what about Physical Therapy makes your heart happy? It is so important for the future DPT student to understand that our profession is all about servicing others and being able to find inner joy doing so. Not everyone has the heart, willingness, and desire to help others that someone in our profession must possess. A couple years ago I had the pleasure to help walk a former patient across the gym to receive his high school diploma. He received a standing ovation from a crowed gymnasium and I watched tears stream down his mother’s face as she watched her son accept his diploma and shake hands with the superintendent. It’s a memory I treasure to this day. I feel honored I was asked to be a part of this young man’s dream and forever grateful that I could experience the amount of love shown on that gym floor. On days that life becomes too hard or I start to question if this is truly what I am meant to do with my life, I reflect on that day. That memory gives me my “glow” and keeps me striving to be the best DPT student and future DPT that I can be!
1 Lewis CB. Our Future Selves: Unprecedented Opportunities | Physical Therapy | Oxford Academic. OUP Academic. https://academic.oup.com/ptj/article/96/10/1493/2870238/Our-Future-Selves-Unprecedented-Opportunities?searchresult=1.
Stop for a just a second and think about yourself in the next 40-50 years. Imagine what your life looks like as an elderly person. Can you imagine yourself traveling the world, seeing sights you’ve never dreamed of and being able to keep up with your grandkids at an amusement park? If not, how do you get to that vision you see? What if I told you that Physical Therapist may be the answer.
Life expectancy has steadily increased over the years and a large portion of our population is over the age of 65.1 In the article Our Future Selves: Unprecedented Opportunities Carol B. Lewis speaks about the geriatric population and how important physical therapy is for those individuals. She discussed how current …show more content…
Ray Bradbury got it right when he said, “Love what you do and do what you love.”3 In essence, what about Physical Therapy makes your heart happy? It is so important for the future DPT student to understand that our profession is all about servicing others and being able to find inner joy doing so. Not everyone has the heart, willingness, and desire to help others that someone in our profession must possess. A couple years ago I had the pleasure to help walk a former patient across the gym to receive his high school diploma. He received a standing ovation from a crowed gymnasium and I watched tears stream down his mother’s face as she watched her son accept his diploma and shake hands with the superintendent. It’s a memory I treasure to this day. I feel honored I was asked to be a part of this young man’s dream and forever grateful that I could experience the amount of love shown on that gym floor. On days that life becomes too hard or I start to question if this is truly what I am meant to do with my life, I reflect on that day. That memory gives me my “glow” and keeps me striving to be the best DPT student and future DPT that I can be!
1 Lewis CB. Our Future Selves: Unprecedented Opportunities | Physical Therapy | Oxford Academic. OUP Academic. https://academic.oup.com/ptj/article/96/10/1493/2870238/Our-Future-Selves-Unprecedented-Opportunities?searchresult=1.