Starting School (Again…)
If you’ve made it this far, then you must’ve seen something on my Insta or home page that you found interesting. Whether you’re interested in my life as a toddler mom, a working mom, an OT, or a PhD candidate, hopefully you’ll find something to relate to.
As this is my first ever post, I’ve decided to share a bit about my life as a doctoral candidate. Full disclosure: I’m only entering my third week of school, so I don’t have much expertise to share. Lately, though, I’ve been getting questions about why I’m back in school now, what exactly I’m studying, and what I want to do with my degree.
So a little about my educational background: I have a Bachelors of the Arts in English from the University of Delaware and a Bachelors of Science in Occupational Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; my Master’s degree is in Occupational Therapy, also from UW-Milwaukee. When I was working my Masters, I frequently toyed with the idea of continuing for my PhD. Those thoughts were fleeting, though — I knew that I needed to get out in the field and practice my new skill set, so I did just that. I worked as an occupational therapist for eight years, and I truly enjoyed it. I still do! That being said, life circumstances changed, and I was presented with the opportunity to return for that next degree.
My son, Baer, was born nearly three years ago (let’s not talk about that!), and I always assumed that I would prioritize my profession; I always defined myself as a career girl. But that changed once I held that baby boy for the first time. Maternity leave went by too quickly, and I realized that I simply had a change in priorities and I wanted to be Mom first and OT second. Full time employment was no longer an option, so I went part time and it was the best decision for my family. It was perfect for those 2.5 years. This summer, though, something shifted in me. I loved my job, I loved my coworkers, and I loved my schedule. But… I missed learning; I missed reading; I missed the classroom; I missed research; I missed my professors. After much discussion with my husband, my parents, and faculty members at UW-Milwaukee, I applied for the PhD program in Health Sciences and was accepted!
So fast forward several months and here I am! Right now, I am taking three classes: two statistics courses and one lecture on preparing for life post doctoral degree. They’re very interesting but they are hard. Stats has never come easily for me, so I am kind of kicking myself for trying to do two classes at once. You live, you learn. In my defense, I thought it would be wise to get them out of the way since my dissertation will require a lot of statistical analyses. And what exactly is my dissertation topic? To be determined! However, two preliminary areas that I am interested in are long Covid and its effects on functional performance, and long term burn survivors and the use of robotics in improving ROM (totally related, right?). I invite you to join me in my journey and to stay tuned as those decisions get made! We can see how things come into focus together, I hope you’ll join me.