Mariah's Road to Idaho
Hey everyone! I left off on my last blog post talking about my time in college and how I worked my way towards my goal of graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science.
Once my Senior year of college hit, I really wanted to graduate in the spring which meant I needed to take 20 credits during the fall semester and 22 credits in the spring. This was a huge challenge for me, but I was ready to face it head on. I ended up quitting my full-time job because my husband was willing to support me through the rest of my undergraduate career.
I was so thankful for him because without him I do not believe I could have gotten through it all. He not only helped me financially through school, but he was also my rock when I felt like I couldn’t possibly get through all my schoolwork. I worked so hard every day, spending upwards to 10 or 11 hours a day on the school campus. In the end it all paid off because I made straight A’s in both semesters of my senior year and I graduated cum laude, with honors for all the volunteer work I did.
My goal for after college was to go to graduate school for Physical Therapy. However, life had different plans for me. I applied to 4 different schools, and I didn’t get an interview to any of them. The application process was arduous and honestly took a lot out of me. I considered applying again the next year, but it just didn’t feel right. I always try to listen to what the universe is trying to tell me and spending another year and hundreds of dollars on another round of applications just wasn’t it.
During that year when I was applying to all those graduate schools, I worked at an outpatient PT clinic where I was able to really apply a lot of the things I learned in school.
After that year was over my husband and I moved down to Texas for a change in scenery, an opportunity to grow my husband’s painting business, and for me to choose from several great schools down there for whatever I wanted to work towards next. I decided the best way to still be in the PT field was to go back to school to be a Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA).
However, we decided that Texas just wasn’t for us, and we missed the mountains, snow, and cooler weather in general. So, after a year and a half of living down there we started making our way back up north. Pocatello just seemed to be the right place to go. We had visited here once before when I was looking at PT schools.
I really liked Idaho State University and what they had to offer, and my husband and I both really liked this area. Once we finally got up here, everything just fell into place, and it has felt like we’re right where we’re supposed to be. We absolutely love it up here and I couldn’t be more grateful to find a home at West Clinic while I wait to start school again next fall at ISU.
-Mariah
