Free write

Sundays are the best days and the worst days. All afternoon, motivation reaches an all-time low; Zaxbys is the preferred lunch of choice; and cumulative television hours double as this lethargic day rolls on. Stories fly around the room about the night before, fueling week-long debates of sports bets and relationship talks. Finally, at the pinnacle of laziness, a sudden and dramatic realization of sorts takes place. You take a good hard look at your week ahead and realize what tasks are looming and how much work you've piled up, shoved to the side, and said, "Nah, I'll just do that on Sunday". Well now all of this procrastination has reared its ugly head and there's no way out. Your back is against the wall. Weekend warriors trudge to the library with strong coffees in hand ready to battle on through another week. But don't worry guys, another weekend is only five days away.

They never read cover letters?

Browsing through these articles about cover letters written from a hiring manager's point of view, I've learned a few things about them I would have never known. First, I had no idea that cover letters were rarely read, and if they are read, it's after the resume. I thought that it was the other way around, which is actually what my Health 419 professor was stressing. However, no matter how often they are read, cover letters are still important. They're another selling point for you to your prospective company. The most important part of a cover letter, from what I gathered, is your description of yourself and what you can bring to the company, as well as a strong close. Just like final arguments, closings carry a lot of weight and are usually the last thing the hiring manager remembers about you, so make it count.

Still got sweaty palms

Sometime in my future, I know an interview with a prospective company is looming. While I've never been too good at situations like interviews, I think this website offered a bit of good advice. After reading two articles, I have a little better of an idea of what to expect. I've learend that appearance is crucial when giving off a first impression. Secondly, I need to do some homework about the company, possibly even jotting down some notes to show that you are really interested in the company and not merely going through the motions of an interview. The second article I read provided good information about sealing the deal. You can really blow a great interview by slipping up towards the end. As in public speaking, delivery is everything. How you say what you say is very important and can make or break you in an interview. Next, the interviewer is more likely to remember the last thing you say. Therefore, when listing things, save the best quality or job for last. Lastly, you should be aware of how the employers will get back to you before you leave, so you're not left waiting around for a phone call that will never come.

Integration/Admission

After reading Martin Luther King Jr.'s "A Letter from Birgmingham Jail", one can't help but notice the elements of ethos, logos, and pathos that pervade the persuasive document. King establishes ethos fairly early on in describing the similaritities of his profession to those of his audience. His work as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference coincides with the clergymen to whom the letter is addressed, in sharing the gospel. His personal experiences in explaining segregation and the way of the world during those times to his children creates a sense of ethos as well as the vivid descriptions of brutalities committed against "Negroes" in the South, using phrases like "bombings of Negro homes". His logos shines through when he is persuading clergymen to sympathize with his act of breaking the law, when he juxtaposes just laws with moral fortitude that uphold "sameness" and those laws that unjustly "differentiate" citizens. After seeing these three constructs of persuasiveness exemplified in King's letter, I went on the hunt to find the use of such tools in my field of Health Science.
My quest ended at the PT graduate school webpage for the Medical University of South Carolina. With students essentially paying for 3 more years of schooling, MUSC must sell itself in order to win the best students from not only South Carolina, but surrounding states as well. MUSC also uses elements of pathos, logos, and ethos to entice students to enroll there and bring them more money. Ethos is established in the school's statement of accredibility from nationally recognized Association of Accredidation in Physical Therapy Education. Also, it posts the prestigious careers of its very own educators to give off the sense that students will be receiving the highest education. Ethos is implemented by having alumni give detailed accounts of how nice the staff/facutly was and how their goal is to take care of you and guide to on to your profession. Logos was a little tough to find, but I saw it in the statistics given for the field of physical therapy in how much they make per year and how with the increasing number of older folks, the field physical therapy is a logical choice that will experience no job shortage in the near future.

In ten years I will be...

hopefully reaping the benefits of working hard now. I hope to be well-entrenched in my dream job of Physical Therapist, being a community leader, and starting a family of my own. After graduating from Clemson in May of 2009, I plan to attend Graduate School and dig myself further into student loan debt while most of my friends start making what seems like a fortune to a person right out of college. While still in school, however, I hope to get my doctorate in Physical Therapy and start practicing shortly thereafter.
Ten years from now, I see myself raising a family and living a happy, yet simple life. I plan to have an 8-5 job working at an outpatient physical therapy clinic, hopefully self-owned one day, leaving all my work at the office, and not having to work any weekends. I see myself giving a lot to my family and community, because as my Dad says about community service, "You've got to give something back. If you don't have the time, give the money; and if you don't have the money, give the time." I hope to be watching my kids go to public schools, because I think private schools give children a skewed reality and slight them on some social skills necessary to make kids humble and accepting. I'm definitely going to be involved in my family a great deal, which is one of the reasons why I chose PT instead of going to med-school and becomming a doctor or a big businessman. One thing I've promised myself is that I won't be one of those parents glued to a cell-phone all the time whose business hours run into family time. Finally, I see myself with a dog. I never had a dog growing up, but I've always wanted one.
This is an image of what I see myself like in ten years, but I'll be the first to tell you there are a whole lot things that I want to do and see before becomming the home-body physical therapist.

Web 2.0

After watching the youtube video on the web, I think the title desribes the new and improved usability of the web. Originally complicated and hard to view, post, share, and change, the web oversimplifies everything down to a level where now kids can easily do things on the web their parents couldn't even think of doing. This affects the workforce in large part due to the widespread use and understanding of the web and a huge number of people being more web-savvy. People already in the workforce, our parents for example, are finding it tough to adapt to a more web-reliant culture where all the answers to anything and everything are found on the computer. I don't think the web will ever replace the old ways completely, but the world will become based mroe around the web, as it has in the past decade, which will force us to rethink some, but not all things in our lives.

Icebreaker

Hello bloggers. My name is Matthew Rinckel and I'm a Junior health science major from Lynchburg, Virginia. After I graduate, I hope to go on to physical therapy school somewhere and maybe one day own a practice, but for now, I am coaching a youth basketball and soccer team at the YMCA. As far as interests go, I just like being active and try to avoid spending my college days on a couch. I like to play soccer, beach volleyball, and swim, but I also enjoy hiking and canoeing. I am a huge classic rock fan; however, I have everything in my tunes library from Earth, Wind, and Fire to Journey. I hope that gives you a good description about me and I am looking forward to posting more as the semester goes on.