My journey began when I applied here for IUPUI. During my process of searching for colleges, I knew I wanted to run while also pursuing my passion and goal of wanting to become a Physical Therapist. Out of the 9 colleges I was looking into, I felt like IUPUI was going to be the best fit and so far I can happily say that I stand behind that statement. I have been able to balance athletics and academics well so far and while there have been stressful situations here and there, I have grown as a student and person from those situations. One such learning experience was in my Introduction to Exercise Science class. My professor required the class to reach out to someone in the field that we were interested in and interview them. I chose a physical therapist, named Josh, at Purdue Northwest. There I watched him work with a patient and was able to type out what I learned into a Word doc for the rest of the project. The project included a 10-page summary of the day-to-day life of the career we chose and why we chose it. In the 10-page summary, we also had to choose a second career choice and explain why we chose that. After that, we had to pick somewhere to live and create a monthly budget off of that. It included taxes, utility costs, groceries, gas, etc. After that, we had to make a resume and answer questions that related to each of the topics talked about above. Overall, this project was stressful at times but my communication skills improved and I learned an extremely in-depth knowledge of physical therapy through it.

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Going into college, I didn't have a clear idea of what I would need to work on but over this semester I learned my time management was one of my strengths, however, I needed to improve my study habits. In high school, I didn't need to study but quickly discovered in college that I would struggle if I didn't change them early on. Thankfully I was able to reach out to my older teammates or professors for tips on how to study. The biggest help was when I asked one of the TAs for Professor Naugle's Structural Kinesiology class, Brandon, for studying tips on a lab exam that was coming up over the muscles of the lower arm. For reference, there are 19 different muscles with 11 being extensor muscles and 8 being flexors with some appearing similar to others. He taught me a method where you go around the forearm like a circle to simplify it. Using this method, I was able to almost ace the lab exam. Furthermore, this first semester allowed me to acknowledge my weaknesses, find solutions to them, and fix them. My strengths of time management and high levels of work ethic played a huge role in tackling my weaknesses.

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One big lesson I learned over the course of this semester was reaching out when I needed help. In high school, I would try to do everything on my own because I could get by with it. I knew going into college would be different but because of how I was in high school, reaching out was a tad difficult. Through my First Year Seminar, I was able to change this bad habit. I can apply this to the rest of my life for when problems arise outside of academics. For example, next year I will have to find housing and instead of trying to do it on my own, I have my older teammates on the Cross Country team that went through that process to ask for help. Next semester, my only advice to myself is to keep my study habits strong now that I have learned them. I was fortunately able to learn them early on and my grades have shown it. Continuing these habits will allow me to excel academically and further help me when I apply for P.T. school in three and a half years.