This is new to me!

I don't know if anyone will actually be interested in what I have to say but I thought I would give it a shot because people keep telling me that what I have to say might touch someone else. Just a little bit about myself, I am 31 (I'll be 32 in 20 days; you just get older after 30, right?), I am married to the most wonderful man who supports whatever it is that makes me happy and I have two boys who just celebrated birthdays and are 3 and 6. I played college basketball but didn't get my college degree because most coaches don't really care about that. I met a fellow ball player and eventually got married. I call it my "practice" marriage so that when I married my current husband I already knew how to cook, how to clean and how to be with someone without losing myself. Somewhere between the practice marriage and the perfect marriage, I got pregnant with my oldest son. It was just him and I until he was 2 1/2 years old and we met my current husband. Times were tough when we were by ourselves. I worked in some jobs I thought I really liked but when it really came down to it I was doing what I needed to do to pay the bills. We had our second son and got married all in the same year. I lost my job almost a year later and I feel like it was the best thing to ever happen to me. I hated my job and my performance showed it. I got to spend real quality time with my little monsters. It was the first time I had really been able to do that. I looked for a job for a while but then I realized how much I would have to make in order to be able to pay for daycare for my boys. Nearly half of my check was going to daycare and I made pretty good money and I had pretty cheap daycare. It just didn't seem worth it. I started praying and asking God to give me signs as to what I was supposed to do with my life, what path I was supposed to be on. I asked him to give me signs that I couldn't ignore, that were very obvious. I started hearing these commercials every time I got into the care without fail about being a physical therapist assistant. I finally got enought courage to look up the information and go to the school. I was told that there was a 2 year waiting list to get in the program and another 2 years to complete the program. It seemed crazy to me that it would take 4 years minimum and it was just to get a certificate. My thoughts then turned to just going all the way and becoming a physical therapist. It would only take 2 more years and would be more of a challenge, which I liked. I found the information I needed online about what I needed to do to get my doctorate in physical therapy, what bachelors' I needed to obtain and which schools were in-state that I could attend. I decided to get my bachelors in kinesiology at Arizona State University but start at a local community college to get myself ready after my 10 year layoff from school and to get some prerequisites out of the way. I started last spring (2010) and although I was intitially really nervous, I did really well and found some incredible instructors. I have found that the work that I did and the fact that I have reached a certain maturity level, make school a lot easier than I remember it the first time. I truly enjoy my classes and I can see the value that they have in what I plan on doing. I have found so much value in fact that I have found that although being a physical therapist could be really fulfilling, becoming a physician is where my heart is and really has been a lifelong dream that I let go of the first time I went to college.

I found that there are 2 osteopathic schools here in Arizona, which they did not have before, and getting in to one of them would allow me to not have to move my kids to another state and away from our family. If all else fails there is also UofA Medical School. I know it will be hard and I am a little bit scared but I can't go a day without thinking about the lives I could change being a doctor. The road will be long (probably 7 years between my bachelors, taking time to study for my MCAT and going to medical school) but I feel like it will be worth it not just for me, but for my kids as well. I want nothing more than for them to be "productive members of society" and become whatever their potential holds but I know it is almost impossible if they don't have role models to see doing the same thing. I guess I'll be talking about the ups and downs of being in school while trying to figure out how to be a good mommy, a good wife, a great student and still have time to be good to me. Maybe I've bitten off too much. We will have to wait and see.