A Dollar and a Dream (Part II)

I know you are probably wondering how one phone call changed my life? Well I’ll explain… It wasn’t the phone call, it was the person who answered the phone. 

To provide some background, I’ve known that I wanted to pursue a career in Physical Therapy since my sophomore year of college. What I didn’t know was that the demand for physical therapists had increased, and due to that, it became more competitive. My advisor “warned” me of the competitive nature but I didn’t let that deter me. Through my journey of looking at schools, finishing prerequisites, taking the GRE, obtaining observation hours and graduating, I had gone through a multitude of emotions. I’ve also doubted myself on numerous occasions, and I believe a main reason I was so doubtful of my chances was because I had never come across anyone that looked like me in the field during my three years of shadowing. You can imagine all the stress I was going through which made that call much more monumental.

“How may I help ?” said the lady , and I immediately started to discuss my situation on how I was coming from Chicago to visit the school with an intermediate stop in Virginia. I could tell that she sensed my frustration and wanted to help. In the middle of explaining my travel situation, she stopped me and said, “Whatever you need, I gotcha.”

As soon as I hung up, I began to cry. Not because I was sad, but because someone else understood my struggle, my hard work, and more importantly knew how dedicated I was without meeting me.  In this moment, I realized that there are truly people out there in the world that genuinely want to see you do well in life even if they don’t know you; that’s the type of person I aspire to be.