Writing Assignment #2
Narrative Essay
IDS 493
Dr. Kat LaFever

Edwin Wells

                To understand my choices about why I chose Old Dominion’s Cybersecurity program I need to tell you about a lesson I learned when I was in high school. High school is when I started my martial arts career with the style of Tang Soo Do. While I studied at the training hall a mentor taught me a very important life lesson that I still actively use to this day.

                The lesson is about how to maintain balance in life while someone studies martial arts. A practitioner can maintain balance in their life by learning about three areas of life. The idea states that because a martial arts student learns how to destroy, they must also learn how to heal and be creative to maintain balance in life. Learning how to be creative can be anything that requires creativity or free expression. This could be anything like painting, music, or poetry. Doing such activities brings something into the world and gives your mind a sense of freedom. This brings balance between the practitioner and the destructive nature of martial arts by adding to the world from which we take. Learning to heal balances the injuries caused by martial arts by healing or restoring the body. In learning and practicing being creative and medicine a practitioner can balance their life’s destructive forces and productive forces.

                Thus, this was the motivation for becoming a Physical Therapist Assistant. Being a Physical Therapist Assistant allowed me to learn and practice medicine which helped to bring balance to my life. I also noticed a marked improvement in my martial arts performance and training as well. Learning about how the human body moved and is structured is of high value when you need to know how to break it.

                I studied at Tidewater Community College earning both my associate’s degree and license to practice in Virginia in 2017. I began working at Wardell Orthopaedics Physical Therapy soon after graduating. This is where I began to learn Fascial Counterstrain, an innovative manual therapy technique which releases restrictive tissue to improve blood flow, movement, and decrease discomfort. This technique allowed me to see results and progress in very difficult cases which other therapists had difficulty with. Thus, I began to have a great deal of empathy and have high standards of care when it comes to patient care.

                I can recall a couple of cases that really stood out about the impact and quality of care that I was able to give patients. First is a young man involved in a car accident came in with complaints of whole-body pains. After just a few sessions he stated that he “felt better than before the accident” and brought his wife in, who was also involved in the accident, to be treated by me. Second is another young man who came in for whole-body pain from playing soccer. This gentleman was interesting because I eventually noticed that he could not straighten his right leg. He reported that his leg did not fully straighten after being hit with a jet ski from a few years prior. By the end of that session his leg was able to fully extend after being bent for years.

                The next two cases I will recall are not as successful in results but speak towards their complexity and need for empathy and care. The first lady I will recall was a workman’s comp case with radiating pain down her left leg. Treatment wise I was unable to make significant progress towards treatment goals and ultimately, she and I acknowledged that. Her case was tough on me due to not making significant headway and her emotional venting with expressions of suicide. My impact on her though was the emotional value and support I gave her for diligently trying and researching.

                The second lady is an older woman who had been on workman’s comp for much of her life. I really enjoyed working with her as she was generally always very bubbly and fun, but she also helped to hone my craft due to her body awareness. Due to her complexity and medical history we both knew we were not going to cure anything but rather manage pain and maintain function as best as possible. Again, the real impact was emotional due to the management of pain, which no other therapist had managed, and the commitment I displayed for her care. Thus, all these cases really developed my sense of empathy and passion for quality patient care.

                After about five years I realized that I was underpaid for my skills along with recently purchasing a house brought me to search for an increase in pay. Sentara medical group gave the increased pay I was looking for. However, the environment of working at Sentara was significantly different. There was a more corporate feeling with increased demand for billable units and less emphasis on patient care. This meant that patients were not getting the high quality of care standards I felt they should get and were receiving treatment designed for money generating purposes. This feeling and observation did not sit well with me and started my decision to leave.

                I had also noticed that other employees felt the same way about the quality of care. This, along with how management responded to some of our complaints, also drove my decision to leave Sentara. Essentially, management had told us that the statistics for our complaints weren’t really a problem and brushed our complaints under the rug right in front of us at an in-person meeting. The main thing we had complained about was the number of double bookings that all of the therapists were receiving and overwhelming the staff at particular times of the day. Unfortunately, this is not what the upper management had seen or heard.

                The final straw that drove my decision to leave not only Sentara but also the field of Physical Therapy were the rumblings of how Medicare was going to reimburse Physical Therapist Assistant units. The rumblings were that Medicare was going to reimburse at half of what they do for Physical Therapists. This meant two things, one that I was going to become even more overwhelmed and that eventually my job role everywhere would be phased out. So, then comes the decision about what field to go to.

                I talked with a few of my friends in other fields and ultimately decided to transition into the Cybersecurity field. I really enjoyed what my friends were saying about their workload and work environments. Mainly that even though the amount of work might be high, it is generally easy to do. Also, many jobs could be done remotely from home, or you could get the opportunity to do some traveling.

                The timing could not have worked out better with life circumstances. After a few months working for Setara my wife and I found out that we were pregnant with our first child. The experiences I had, and the expecting newborn led the way to enrolling at ODU. I also knew that going back to school would have added benefits. The main benefit would be having the opportunity to be deeply involved in raising my child during the first few years of their life. Thus, because of this chain of events and hearing about the potential opportunities and beneficial working conditions led me to ultimately enroll at ODU and begin my cybersecurity career.