Classes at UCLA

[Catrina Jones]

My name is Catrina Jones. I was born in San Diego, California and lived there my whole life. When I was a junior in high school, a member from an Asian gang, as a part of their initiation, shot my cousin three times in the back. He was hit in the spine and it was thought that he would never walk again. However, with the help of a strong support system and hard working physical therapist he was able to walk again six months later. This was when I knew that I wanted to become a physical therapist. So I worked really hard through my senior year to earn scholarships so that I could afford to go to college. When I was accepted into UCLA I knew going there would be hard work but this was what I need to do to become a physical therapist. So for the last two years I have been working my butt off getting my prerequisites and my GEs done and am currently starting my upper division physiological science class. Even when I want to quit and not study anymore I think about my goal of becoming a physical therapist and that forces me to study for my organic and biochemistry midterms and learn about all of the parts of the brain even though the smell of formaldehyde makes me feel sick. I know that I it doesn’t matter how much I don’t care about how long it takes for neurons to fire; how many ways one can rearrange carbon or how humans evolved from fish. I just keep my eyes on the prize and make sure that I don’t get sidetrack by momentary pleasures. I want to be just like the physical therapist that helped my cousin walk again. I believe that if I am able to help people it will be just like I am helping my cousin. So even when I don’t think I am able to go on I just think how blessed I am that I can walk and function on my own and then I find the motivation to continue.