Kelly Huang submitted 2017-08-19 00:00:00 +0000
My desire to pursue a career in athletic training and physical therapy stems from my natural interests in lending a hand to those in need of it as well as my background in playing teams sports growing up. From a young age, I’ve always participated in various teams such as basketball and volleyball. Throughout the years, I’ve seen a whole range of different injuries. Some may last less than a week, while others may linger for many months. It was the human body’s natural recovery process that interested me the most. Somehow, in some way, the human body finds a way to heal itself every time. Sure, this healing process may be aided by medicine or medical equipment, but it is still ultimately the human body that musters up the strength to recover itself. This longing curiosity of mine, as well as my love of sports, is what leads me to believe that the marriage between the sports and medical industry is what I hope to pursue my career in.
With such a responsibility, I know that preparing myself mentally and physically is essential in every situation. You never know if it can be the difference between life and death in certain situations. The first step of being prepared is to be confident. True confidence not only means passing the required challenging science classes like anatomy, biology, chemistry, and kinesiology, but also actually understanding the practicality of such information. Understanding how the body functions, figuring out how chemicals play a part in it, and putting the knowledge to use in real situations are all challenges I look forward to conquering. I know that it’ll both my natural curiosity for the topic as well as hard work to be successful in this field.
As my kinesiology professor told me, the first step in solving any problem is acknowledging what the problem actually is. In the athletic training and physical therapy industry, this means identifying what the injury actually is. For me, I always try to make a connection to anything I learn. For example, when I learned about the ankle muscles in kinesiology, I found the relation that the deltoid muscles are called the “deltoid muscles” because of its triangular structure. The connection comes from the delta symbol, which has three sides.
Persistence and an unrelentless nature separates me from the rest of the pack. There have been times when I wanted to give up because of the load of stress and information that needed to be processed in such a minimum amount of time. I would spend countless hour reviewing and re-reviewing the materials on the next test to a point when every word I looked at looked and sounded funny. There had also been other times when I wanted to give up, but my sister would step in and help me self-realize the cause is for something that’s bigger than myself. That’s why I can’t ever give up. “Try once, try twice, and try again I think the willingness and the effort of going for something you really believe in is really important. Even if you try once, if you fail, I think there are a lot of great lessons to learn from that. If you fail again, it’s okay, I think there’s another opportunity to try one last time.” - Junie Huang
Last but not least, I huge source of inspiration has been my mother. She is a very important figure in my life throughout all the hardships our family had to face. My mother was diagnosed with cancer Fall of 2016 and it’s been hard for her ever since. However, it doesn’t stop her from being the best possible mother a child can ever dream of. As the woman who holds the family together, she displays a lot of commitment and encouragement for us. Though she might be in tremendous pain, she always finds a way to be there for our family. Every time I think of my mother and her persistence in life, I feel inspired to do the same. I’ve realized that everything I do, stems from my mother’s teaching and it’s something I can’t be more grateful for.
I want to give to others, what my mother gave to me. I want to show people that just because of an unfortunate event, that doesn’t give you an excuse to give up. My mom didn’t give up on us because of this sickening cancer just like how athletes shouldn’t give up when an injury occurs. It’s only with adversity when our true selves show. I want to end this essay with a quote. Gail Lynn Goodwin once said, “Adversity can be turned into an opportunity simply by adjusting our perception and attitude.” I firmly believe it is because of this intangible that I am equipped with, that makes me most prepared for any situation.