Through life lessons and examples set by influential role models, I’ve learned to treat everyone

from the bus driver to the president, with the same level of respect.
I spent one summer in high school observing Jimaki Witherspoon Roach, MPT, a warm, friendly
physical therapist (PT) with dark curly hair and skin the exact color of caramel candy.
Shadowing Jimaki was my first experience with PT. In fact, her passion and warm demeanor has
a lot to do with why I fell in love with the profession. Jimaki was very accommodating with her
patients. She explained why each exercise was assigned, but also going a step further and
showing a genuine interest in each patient’s life. She’d regularly remember the names of a
patient’s grandchild, or girlfriend, or home church. While Jimaki was a phenomenal PT, she
never acted as if she knew more or less than any of the other therapists at her practice. She got
along with everyone and was never shy about asking one of her colleagues for their opinion on a
treatment plan. Jimaki’s positive attitude and emphasis on teamwork was evident in this
workspace as she joked with other therapists and encouraged their patients as well. This
positivity also pushed patients to encourage one another, resulting in an extremely warm,
professional, safe therapy environment.
Observing Jimaki confirmed to me the benefit of treating everyone with the same level of respect
and attention. I watched her gain a bit of wisdom and insight from everyone who walked
through the door, and because of this attitude, she now runs her own successful PT practice. It is
inspirational to see her, a physical therapist who is a woman of color, carving her own way in a
field where health care providers that look like us are limited in number.
I find myself putting Jimaki’s example of respect into practice more often than I realize, years
later. Currently, I am observing the physical therapists of Lexington Medical Center’s outpatient
rehab facility. Overtime, I have become accustomed to caring for patients and getting to know
them individually. Recently, I met a patient about my mother’s age who attended therapy
multiple times a week. She was on the thin side, but plump in terms of glow and spirit. Her
contagious smile and deep laugh would make you wonder if she was in any discomfort at all.
Through conversation, I learned that she had multiple sclerosis (MS), and was expected to go
into an exacerbation period soon. We didn’t focus on her condition much though, instead talking
about her hobbies, and family, as well as my friends, and future plans.
As her level of comfortability with me increased, one afternoon she shared her life story with me.
I learned that this brave woman had survived a household filled with domestic violence, an
abusive relationship as a teenager, and 20 years of MS. She was diagnosed when she was the
same age that I am today. Despite her various reasons to be incontinent, this woman urged me to
see the beauty in life through each storm. She is adamant that her experiences made her who she
is today.
By showing this woman genuine respect and attention, I gained a lifetime’s worth of wisdom.
Her willingness to share her story with me meant more than she’ll ever realize. That morning, I
found myself very overwhelmed with the demands of college. But after chatting with her, I was
energized and reminded of the light at the end of the tunnel. Gaining this experience with you all
will only bring me closer to a career of one day illuminating the lives of others as they do mine
in return. Physical therapy isn’t just “physical”, it is also mentally taxing to not be able to move
your body. It is critical that therapists be able to view someone with a degenerative illness, as
more than just their illness. No one is disabled, only differently able. Regardless of what caused
a patient to seek PT, it is the therapist's obligation to oversee their rehabilitation process. It is
also the therapist’s obligation to restore the patient’s abilities as fully as possible. I desire to one
day make a difference in the lives of patients, all the while instilling that same level of respect
and allowing them to touch my life as I work to restore their physical abilities.