And so begins Christmas Break!

My last week of clinical finished this past Friday and truthfully I was sad to be done. I had finally begun to relax, to enjoy it instead of being afraid of it, to feel like I was making a connection with the patients instead of being viewed as an incompetent young lady.

My clinical was the biggest character trial I have ever gone through. For 6 weeks, 40 hours a week my confidence was tested. I was my biggest hurdle. I knew the setting I had picked was not one that I anticipated working in when I graduated. In all the observation sites I had done, however, I had always seen the passion of the PTs and felt like I could make a difference as well if I had to work in a non-pediatric setting. In the beginning, I wasn't able to make a difference because the patients didn't trust me and to me, PT is all about making a difference. My instructor did a great job helping me be more confident. She definitely went above and beyond trying different ways to help me relax in the setting.

But God has taught me several things throughout this experience:

The verse that says "if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here" was definitely applied. Being made new, being made like Christ means that I am supposed to have the characteristics that God has and fear is not one of God's character traits. I had to remind myself of that continually.

My mom quoted that "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" quite frequently. I believe that God created me to be a PT; He has given me a talent set to work with the special-needs population. Throughout this entire clinical I never doubted that I was supposed to be a PT - that this was the wrong career field for me. I doubted other things but not that. Therefore God would carry it on to completion.

This clinical was definitely a life-learning experience. Every day I was reminded how precious life is; what a gift everyday is that we get to spend with family or friends; how quickly the lives of a person and his or her family can change.

There were private tears for the patients and public laughs and smiles with them as well. I loved coming home to Sean and sharing about my day. I always had at least 1 good story. All in all, it was an excellent experience! I have grown the most as a person in that short amount of time and I have definitely grown as a PT student.

Now I have only 1 more semester left of school until I'm in my 3rd year. Time has truly flown!