I am a 32-year-old native of the Bay Area. I attended U.C. Santa Cruz after graduating from Sequoia High School, and earned a bachelor’s degree in literature. However after college, I pursued my first love which is yoga and have taught yoga here in the Bay Area since 1995. A few years ago, I decided to round out my professional life by pursuing a career in health care. For about three years, I took prerequisites for a physical therapy program, consisting of a lot of science courses as I hadn’t completed any for my literature degree. This last spring, having already submitted an application and been invited to interview, I decided that physical therapy wasn’t the right match for me.
Fortunately, I found the Respiratory Therapy program at Skyline College just as it was starting this fall. It seemed very fortuitous that there was still room for me in the program, and I had already completed nearly all of the other courses I would need for the program. I like this program for several reasons. It is small, allowing for much interaction between students and instructors and the ability to address individual needs of the students better. I like studying about the respiratory system, a process in the body so essential for life and also pertinent to yoga, my foremost interest. I also like that the program is not so intense and time-consuming as to prevent me from pursuing my other interests and teaching yoga.
I am excited to be embarking upon an education and subsequent career in Respiratory Therapy. The field seems to offer many opportunities in many different ways. Few people seem to be aware of this field as a career option and consequently, there is a high demand in the job market right now. I feel that it is a growing profession, and though now the norm is for professionals to be educated in two year programs, I believe that higher degrees of education will be required as time goes on. It is also a good stepping stone into other careers in health care such as becoming a Physician’s Assistant, something that also interests me.
