By all means, burn (with passion)

                One of the reasons why I wanted to become a teacher when I was a kid was because I was amazed by the amount of influence they have on their students. There is a reason why they are branded as our “second parents." They are capable of so much more than just touching the mind – they also touch hearts.

                These thoughts circled around my head as I watched Freedom Writers. Ms. G, who I thought would be just a normal teacher, proved to be so much more than that. I was amazed by her passion and desire for teaching. She did not give up just because her students despised her. She did not use her authority to make them follow. She tried different strategies to understand them, to put herself at par with them, to connect with them. She kept on trying. She gave all her time and effort. She sacrificed even her personal relationships. And with all these efforts, she was eventually able to connect with her students.

                Her approach was that she tailored her activities to the student’s personalities – a strategy employed to engage and connect with the students and to make her teaching more effective. This is an important thing that I need to remember as a future physical therapist: the more meaningful the activity to the person is, the better they will comply and learn.

Not all of my future patients will be the same. I will come across diverse personalities. Each patient will always be different from the others, even if they present with the same case. There will always be something that will separate them from the others. And this is what I should look out for. To be able to effectively teach my future clients, I need to connect with them. To be able connect with them, I need to see what makes them who they are.

Being able to teach is one thing, but being able to transform a life is another. It is fulfilling, but it does not come easy. You first need to find that passion and to keep it aflame. Never let it die.