To my friends who are taking the PTOT local boards

Let me tell you my friends, the fact that you are sitting for the exam tomorrow is an achievement worth telling. That seat could have been someone else's but you took up the courage to take it for yourselves. That seat could have been empty, but now it is heavy with your hopes and dreams for the future. A future in which the world will be shaped by your burning passion and great determination. If you look back to it, you'll see how humble your beginnings were. Some of you must have been just persuaded to take it. Some with just the curiousity in their minds. Some must have taken into account that nursing has a surplus. And in rare cases, some who actually dreams of becoming professional occupational and physical therapists. It took just the simple choice of enrolling the course and whatever happened after that is credited for your regal choice to stick to it.

I want you to take just a little while to remember how you got there - to the seat where your future will be built. Remember the first day of school? Who do you talk to? You ask yourself. Then you made a simple choice of who to be-friend. Remember the next few weeks when you ponder if you are just going to copy that physics assignment given by the professor? Then you made the simple choice not to. Remember your first anatomy class? You wonder whether your seniors were right about how you'll not have the appetite to eat after seeing a cadaver for the first time. Then you made the seemingly silly decision to eat chicken fillet at McDonald's afterwards. As the days progress however, the simple choices weighed more - like stones thrown over your back. You never realized how those simple decisions could lead you to marching on that stage with the friends you thought were the weirdest bunch you've ever met during that first day of algebra class. Now, you are going to take the local boards. You must realize that it is that heavy not only because of the intense review you have undergone the past few months, but of the five or more years you have spent making simple choices. Remember that it is in our moments of decision that our destiny is shaped. And that fate is going to be built tomorrow. You have been working hard and I believe that you will be rewarded! Your determination will shake that exam until you claim that license!

So in dedication to you guys, I have a short poem to share and the video of "Best Times". Oh and a picture from 9gag that will remind you of your love for your course.

Finding Strength

by Kris Akemi Job

To you who is weakened

This I pray...

That if now you're suffering

May tomorrow, God bestow you strength

To face the dismay

And in years henceforth

You shall look back

And be grateful for the stones

For they have paved way to the dreams

You once held "nay"