'around sports my entire life' - PTCAS ESSAY

Here is my essay Word counted 3737 characters with spaces. Please critique anything and everything. I thank you in advance.

I have been around sports my entire life, its what I know and where I feel comfortable. I was fortunate enough to be able to play college hockey for a local division 3 school where I feel I hit a fork in the road. See I was never a strong academic student; it was the last thing on my mind. After my sophomore year was cut short due a season ending and soon after career ending injury to my head I landed myself in the athletic training room for a while. Here is where I choose my path in life and realized that there were other outlets that I could use my talents and knowledge of sports. So after my sophomore year I transferred to WVU and enrolled in their athletic training program. I was looked at funny and questioned if this was what I wanted to do seeing as 4 more years of school would follow, but I was determined that this was my calling.

It's funny to look back at the journey I had taken to get to where I am now because if each individual piece to the puzzle didn't fit in the correct spot I wouldn't be writing to you now. While at WVU I was fortunate enough to be asked to partake in a summer internship with the Carolina Panthers football team. This experience helped to open my eyes to the large world of helping others on and off the field. I realized from this experience that athletic training and physical therapy although different in nature could work harmoniously together to better the public. I learned a priceless amount of knowledge and experience with the Panthers and was fortunate enough to return for the following year as a one year intern. We did not win a ton and our coaches knew their time had come to an end, but through them I learned a lot about adversity and not to give up when backed into a corner no matter how high the stakes are. Yet another priceless lesson and personal quality I attribute to the coaching and athletic training staff of the Panthers and something I am ever grateful for.

Once my time was up with Carolina in early May I knew what my ultimate goal was, and had set many short term goals along the way that although they seemed impossible at the time completing them would be one step closer to the big picture; becoming a licensed physical therapist. Obtaining my undergraduate degree and becoming board certified in athletic training were important to my cause but the end result was still out of grasp. I had an unknown missing element to the journey to complete. As with my life story nothing is what it seems and nothing is handed to me. I planned on taking the next year to complete my final 4 prerequisites for physical therapy school and then apply, but I did not intend on being fortunate enough to work for a division 1 football team, let alone my alma mater. I graciously accepted and yet another lesson learned from this team in adversity and as our head coach would always say after a tough battle in the trenches, we had found a way to defy the odds and win. That spoke to me like the coaches in Carolina had. Find a way, never back down, and over come all odds. To think these simple fraises could speak mountains of motivation and charisma to me. No longer was I the person struggling to find his way through high school dreaming of the NHL one day, but I was a person with a goal determined to eliminate all else in my life that stood in between myself and that goal.

Physical therapy for me is a hockey game, you might get banged up or set back in the clinic but the will to find a way to over come adversity and never back down is the mindset we need to have for our patients. Patients who might be scared of have thoughts of doubt that they will never be whole again. I've been down that road and can take them with confidence down that road to success.