Hi. My name is Erin Kingham, I am a physical therapy student, and I’m gay.

While all of this has been true for some time now, I still find it odd to see it all in the same sentence.

For a long time, being gay was not something I ever thought would play a role in my being or becoming a physical therapist (PT). In my mind they were 2 very distinctly separate parts of myself. However, during my first year of physical therapy school I found my mind-set slowly beginning to shift.

Maybe it was because I was finally in the clinic and interacting with real clinicians and patients, maybe it was the fact that I had finally come out to my parents, or maybe it was the summer I had spent interning at a nonprofit organization reminding other people that they are enough just as they are. Whatever it was that triggered it, I came to realize that I’d be happier not separating all parts of myself.