Traveling PTA

I’ve been in the healthcare field for about 5 years. I started my career as a traveling Physical Therapist Assistant in Alabama, because as it turns out, most facilities prefer you to have experience in the field before they hire you. So I took the 22 hour drive from little town Sidney, NY to Florala, AL with my dad. It was the longest six weeks of my life because as much as I love to travel and visit new places, I’m a homebody and love my family. While I’ve never been diagnosed with depression, I’m pretty sure I was depressed. I spent the next couple of years bouncing back and forth between NY state and MD, so I could still go home to visit, but keep doing my traveling. I met my beautiful fiancée Ashley doing a job in Cooperstown, NY while living with my dad and his girlfriend. We started out as friends and she was in a mentally/emotionally abusive relationship. We began to fall in love and while we never did anything until they broke up, I know we were both waiting for the relationship to end. I tried to be responsible and give her time to heal, but after I left her facility and continued traveling, we began a tentative relationship. After some health issues of my own, I was out of work for a couple of months and living with her. She took on my financial burdens as her own until I recovered and found a permanent job closer to home. We have been dating for a little over two years and we plan to get married in October. She is nine years older than me and I can’t picture my life without her. We have a pit/red heeler mix named Jellybean and I have never been happier.

This story of finding your way was shared by a human named Kaitlyn