Full Circle Career 1975-2025

Physiotherapy Graduating Class- June 1975 (I am 3rd from the left, second row)

The 2025 calendar is exactly the same as it was in 1975, with New Year's Day on a Wednesday, our 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday, April 26th and the end of the year on a Wednesday. In May 1975, a week after we were married, I started my eight-week junior internship at St. Mary's General Hospital. My final exams were in August, and in September 1975, I started my eight-week senior internship at another hospital in the city before securing a full-time position as a licensed physiotherapist.

I completed my junior internship 50 years ago today, on Friday, June 27, 1975. I didn't work at St. Mary's again until after I retired from full-time work in 2020. The last five years of part-time work have been rewarding, bringing my career full circle from its start in this community in 1975. 

Some of my current physiotherapy coworkers ( I am upper right)

In April 2025, the two hospitals in our city amalgamated into one organization. That transition is ongoing and will culminate in the opening of a new, large facility within the next decade. St. Mary's is no longer a Catholic hospital and has been renamed as a branch of the new Waterloo Region Health Network (WRHN). It will take a generation to get used to the new names!

Medical care has changed greatly in the past fifty years, and my basic training was just a foundation for decades of ongoing learning. St Mary's is a regional cardiac centre. I had never worked with patients following open-heart surgery until 2020. My father-in-law waited over a year for heart bypass surgery in London, ON, in 1987 and died in the hospital the night before his surgery. Today, a code STEMI is called by paramedics in the community, and the cardiac team is ready in the ED to give immediate treatment to heart patients when they arrive by ambulance. I admire the expertise of my younger colleagues and their passion for providing excellent care.

Arthur C. Brooks has written several books and articles about happiness after retirement. The pursuit of goals and the validation we get from a career gives an emotional boost, but the emotional bust when it is over can be problematic. In his article Why So Many People Are Unhappy in Retirement he describes how the classic hero's tale consists of answering a call to adventure, surviving the ordeal, and achieving victory in the end. But heroes' tales seldom describe part four, which is the hollowness of letting go. He humorously states,

There’s no Star Wars sequel where Luke Skywalker hangs around the house all day, yelling because someone touched the thermostat and telling his grandkids about blowing up the Death Star for the thousandth time while they roll their eyes.

We all know of people who have stayed too long in positions of power and control, perhaps a politician, a pastor, a teacher, or a board member. It is always better to bow out gracefully on your own terms rather than being forced out because you did not recognize your declining abilities. 

Brooks ends with this advice,

Plan to spend the last part of your life serving others, loving your family and friends, and being a good example to those still in the first three stages of their own hero’s journey.

I knew in February that this would be the last year I would renew my physiotherapy license. Other events in recent weeks have confirmed this. And for some reason, I awoke this morning remembering this was the day I finished my junior internship fifty years ago. 

Change is inevitable, but seldom easy. It is easy to be at odds with our aging outer self and the inner image we carry of ourselves in our prime. My internal self is much younger than the person I see in the mirror! But it is important to make goals and pursue a life of meaning at every stage of life.