The Only Thing Constant is Change

"The only thing constant in life is change."

I graduated from high school in 2010 thinking I had my life all figured out. I was going to be a pediatric physical therapist. I would start by attending college three hours away from home and studying kinesiology, graduating with my bachelor's degree in May 2014. I would then go on to attend physical therapy school starting in the summer or fall of 2014, completing my doctor of physical therapy (DPT) degree within a few years.

I loved the kinesiology program the first year or so. Never had I taken academic classes that taught about sports, fitness, and health like these ones. The material was engaging and I was meeting new people who shared my love for sports, health, and fitness. My skepticism didn't begin until the fall of my sophomore year when I was taking anatomy and physiology, a required course for my major. The class was alright but the accompanying lab was extremely frustrating. I ended up dropping the lab and taking it again the following spring. I began to realize that while I was, and still am, fascinated by the human body, I didn't care to learn the name of each and every nook and cranny on the bones and muscles in the body. What I really wanted to do with my life, which I had known from the beginning when I planned to go into pediatric PT, was work with kids.

I had been thinking about being a teacher for awhile but had some reservations, such as the prospect of working in an educational system that is, in many ways, broken, and the thought of not making very much money. The more I learned about PT school, however, the more I realized what a huge investment it would be. Programs usually cost $50,000-$100,000 and the salary for a PT is about $60,000. My dad calculated earnings of teachers versus physical therapists and realized that if I started teaching at 22 or 23, while a PT didn't start working until they were 25 and $100,000 in debt, it would take about 15 years for the PT to have netted more money. Basically, he proved that money shouldn't be the reason I avoid going into education.

I changed my major to elementary education at the end of the spring 2012 semester, two years into my college education. I was projected to graduate in May 2015 with a bachelor's and licensure. However, due to some mistakes I made as well as circumstances beyond my control, I missed being able to apply to the Teacher Education Program this fall as originally planned. This set my graduation date back to December 2015, a 5 1/2 year college career.

I was frustrated and decided to revisit an option I had briefly evaluated this past summer, the bachelor of individualized studies. This program requires completion of the university's general education requirements as well as the minimum number of lower division (100- and 200-level) and upper division (300- and 400-level) credits. That's it. Credits can come from any department as long as these simple requirements are met.

When I checked out this program during the summer, I found out that I only needed about 24 more credits to graduate, 22 of which needed to be upper division. I decided to stay in the education program at that time and therefore am not enrolled in any upper division classes this fall. Since I can't take all 22 upper division credits this coming spring, I will need to take some this spring and some over the summer. I will officially graduate at the end of the summer but will be able to participate in the May 2014 graduation ceremony.

I then plan to pursue a master's degree in education. Both in-state universities offer master's with licensure programs and I have been told they typically take about two years. So now instead of graduating in December 2015 with a bachelor's in education, I am on track to graduate around May 2016, just one semester later, with a master's instead.

When I was about 17, I decided I was going to be a physical therapist. I'm not. When I was 20, I decided I was going to graduate with a bachelor's in elementary education. I'm not. Now, nearing 22 years old, I have decided I will graduate with a bachelor's in individualized studies followed by a master's in elementary education with licensure. It isn't what I originally wanted and planned to do, but change is inevitable in life and I'm excited to get started on my new plan.