Well, OK, now I am a WKHS Wolf, but I will still always be a Wildcat at heart. I went to the University of Kentucky for my undergraduate degree. So congratulations to those of you (41%) who guessed right in the poll. I did go to graduate school at the University of Dayton and that is the diploma displayed in my office so that could have been tricky. For the record, I also applied to and strongly considered Indiana and OSU before making the decision that UK was the right school for me. (Please note that I strongly believe that one school is NOT right for everyone and therefore just because UK was right for me that doesn’t mean that I think it is the school for everyone! And it doesn’t hurt my feelings if you don’t like UK… just know that if you start speaking highly about some of UK’s rivals that you might see me roll my eyes a time or two. :-) Just Kidding!)
When I was a senior in high school I applied to 5 schools – UK, OSU, Indiana, Ohio University, and Duquesne. I knew that I wanted to be an athletic trainer when I grew up and so I wanted to find a school with a strong program. I ultimately decided that I wanted to find an internship program so that I could major in something other than athletic training (I picked health education and psychology), but still earn my athletic training certification. That narrowed my choices to OSU and UK and honestly, I decided on UK because at that time the opportunities for a female in athletic training were better at UK than they were at OSU. (I know, to most of you reading this it must seem strange and it feels strange thinking that even when I was heading off to college that there were still limitations on options you had simply because of your gender, but it was the truth.) So, because I wanted the opportunity to work football and I am a female the best choice for me was UK. (And, I must also mention that a few years after I started college OSU opened up football athletic training opportunities to females as well as males.)
Here is a picture of me from this summer in front of the Nutter Athletic Training Facility at UK – this is the building where I spent nearly every waking moment of my life during my 4 years at UK.
For the record, I am still a nationally certified athletic trainer, but I never want to do that again. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t change anything that I have done in my past and I will always cherish the experiences and opportunities that I had during my years at UK! I have life lessons that I will carry with me forever and I am proud of my accomplishments which is why I continue to maintain my certification. But, for me, as I completed my final semester of college and was doing my student teaching I realized how much I loved working with students and so I decided I wanted to be in education. I also realized that the hours required for athletic trainers are miserable. My typical day was to be up at 4am – in the training room by 5am until it was time for classes (8-12) and then back in the training room – often until late in the evening and then it was time to head home, grab dinner, study, do homework, catch a few hours of sleep and then get up and do it all again. I loved it at the time, but now just thinking about it makes me tired. :-) I knew that some day I wanted to be able to get married and have a family and those hours just aren’t the easiest to make that a reality. And yes, I also knew that there are different venues that athletic trainers can work other than Division-1 sports where the hours might not have been as demanding, but I pretty much wanted it all or nothing…
So, there you go – more than you had probably hoped to know, but that’s my story of how I ended up at UK and why I am often sporting UK sweatshirts on dress down Fridays.
Hope that you had a good weekend even with all of the rain. See you tomorrow for the 1st “real” 5-day week of the year. And, don’t forget, tomorrow is the last (regular rates) day to register for the October SAT.
When I was a senior in high school I applied to 5 schools – UK, OSU, Indiana, Ohio University, and Duquesne. I knew that I wanted to be an athletic trainer when I grew up and so I wanted to find a school with a strong program. I ultimately decided that I wanted to find an internship program so that I could major in something other than athletic training (I picked health education and psychology), but still earn my athletic training certification. That narrowed my choices to OSU and UK and honestly, I decided on UK because at that time the opportunities for a female in athletic training were better at UK than they were at OSU. (I know, to most of you reading this it must seem strange and it feels strange thinking that even when I was heading off to college that there were still limitations on options you had simply because of your gender, but it was the truth.) So, because I wanted the opportunity to work football and I am a female the best choice for me was UK. (And, I must also mention that a few years after I started college OSU opened up football athletic training opportunities to females as well as males.)
Here is a picture of me from this summer in front of the Nutter Athletic Training Facility at UK – this is the building where I spent nearly every waking moment of my life during my 4 years at UK.
For the record, I am still a nationally certified athletic trainer, but I never want to do that again. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t change anything that I have done in my past and I will always cherish the experiences and opportunities that I had during my years at UK! I have life lessons that I will carry with me forever and I am proud of my accomplishments which is why I continue to maintain my certification. But, for me, as I completed my final semester of college and was doing my student teaching I realized how much I loved working with students and so I decided I wanted to be in education. I also realized that the hours required for athletic trainers are miserable. My typical day was to be up at 4am – in the training room by 5am until it was time for classes (8-12) and then back in the training room – often until late in the evening and then it was time to head home, grab dinner, study, do homework, catch a few hours of sleep and then get up and do it all again. I loved it at the time, but now just thinking about it makes me tired. :-) I knew that some day I wanted to be able to get married and have a family and those hours just aren’t the easiest to make that a reality. And yes, I also knew that there are different venues that athletic trainers can work other than Division-1 sports where the hours might not have been as demanding, but I pretty much wanted it all or nothing…
So, there you go – more than you had probably hoped to know, but that’s my story of how I ended up at UK and why I am often sporting UK sweatshirts on dress down Fridays.
Hope that you had a good weekend even with all of the rain. See you tomorrow for the 1st “real” 5-day week of the year. And, don’t forget, tomorrow is the last (regular rates) day to register for the October SAT.
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