Fantastic thread... and you can add this 34-year-old to the list.
I've held a variety of jobs since graduating college. I've been a medic in the USAF Reserves; an assistant librarian for a small, public library; and an office manager, where I pretty much ran the entire business.
Sometime back in the summer of 2001, I actually considered PT school. The transition to a Master's program was taking place at the time and the GRE scared the PANTS off of me! I also thought that I was "too old" (I was 24/25) and obsessively focused on the fact that I would be 27 before I graduated. So, I put PT on the back burner. Looking back on that now, I have to laugh. Too old? At 24? Scared of a test? C'mon!
Now at 34, I still have those, "what if I'm too old," moments; however, the difference that a decade has made for me is that I'm able to pretty much ignore those negative thoughts. I know that I want to make a major change and I'm not going to let a number prohibit me from doing so.
Settling on a subject to study has not been quite as easy as ignoring that fact that I'm solidly non-traditional. When I first became interested in rehab, I was looking only at PT. As a competitive athlete with a circle of friends and training partners who are also athletes, I tend to talk about injury, recovery and injury prevention A LOT! All of this recently changed when while shadowing a PT at an in-patient facility, I met up with an OT and we began to chat. I found myself more interested in what she was doing than what the PT was doing. If I had my way that day, I would have ditched the PT to go with the OT! As a former social science major (with a lot of anthro and psych courses), the role of OT appeals to me. However, I'm not so sure about toileting just yet.
So yep... I know that I want to make a change, I've gotten over the age thing, but it's been a challenge trying to 'nail down' the exact path that I'm going to take. I'm scheduling some OT obs hours now and hopefully those will help me to decide. I did apply to PT school this year (as a late applicant and a long shot), but in re-reading my essay, I noticed that I talked way too much about, activity influencing one's quality of life, etc... which is more OT than PT. Maybe the PT dept. will pass my app on to the OT dept! Ha! Anyway, I have no doubts that I will eventually make a wise, informed decision about which field I ultimately want to pursue.
Do any of you visit the med student non-traditional forum? I lurk on that board quite a bit... it's fantastic and most of the non-trads are "truly" non-trad (very late 20s-50s). A lot of inspirational stories, a lot of low GPAs (and high ones too), a lot of folks having to redo science classes that they took eons ago. The med student boards can get a bit snarky, but the non-trad board has a softer tone. Maybe the sprouting of gray hairs and appearance of wrinkles helps one to get over the typical "med school" ego.
Good luck to everyone!!!