PT school and relationships

[krissybear]

Are any of you in serious relationships and plan on staying in said relationship throughout PT school? Are you worried it won't work out?
I'm curious to know if anyone else is worried about making a serious relationship work during such a big change in your life. People change, of course, but basically what initially made me more aware of this was that 2 young PTs I have just recently met at work both began dating someone they met while they were in school and one of them is engaged.
Thoughts?

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[Kuhdaytee]

I'm starting school this August with someone I recently began dating (3 months long and met ~6 months ago). He's in the coast guard so I won't have to worry about being too busy to spend time with him while he's away, and he has a car to come visit me when he's on land (about 2.5 hours away from where I live). We plan on staying together long term, but we'll have to wait and see if anything changes once school starts. I'm not worried about it, and I definitely wouldn't want to start school worried about a relationship when I have school to worry about.
When I shadowed at a hospital, there were two traveling PT's who just graduated from the same school. They met in PT school and were engaged. I've also heard the other side of the coin, that you don't want to date anyone in your cohort just incase things don't work out and you're forced to see them every day. It just depends on how confident you are in the potential of your relationship, I guess. Best of luck to you!

 

[swolecat]

My gf and I couldn't handle long distance even tho we had lived together for years beforehand.

That being said, like 75% of my class is already married, and only one couple divorced. Nobody is dating another student in the class.

One mans experience.

 

[VitaminPT]

My fiancee is currently finishing her PhD and we've dated through out her entire time in grad school. She understands the rigors and selfishness that is required so I'm not particularly worried about the workload part. Our relationship will be long distance for a year, but knowing an end date is comforting.

 

[davidtheusername]

I'm in a different situation than most since I'm a nontraditonal student with a child and I've been married for 14 years. I know plenty of physical therapists who managed serious relationships through school who are more of a traditional pt school age. I know people who came in married, got married while in school, had kids in school, seriously dated people while in school, met their partners in school, etc. Sure plenty of relationships don't work out, but those probably wouldn't have worked out if you weren't doing pt school either. PT school is hard, but serious relationships go through hard tests no matter what. It's honestly probably a decent test for long term compatibility. For some people, I'm sure it's hard to maintain a relationship while in school. For others, having someone outside of school you can vent to and lean on is extremely helpful. As with all things, it's going to depend on you/your relationship.

In my personal situation, my marriage has handled a child, us both having 80 hour a week jobs before we had a child, caring for a terminally ill parent, my wife going through a serious illness, and all the normal scrapes of life without relationship trouble. PT school is hard on relationships, I'm sure, but no harder than plenty of things we all end up going through. I have friends that have dealt with continuing relationships through multiple tours of military duty, we have it pretty easy compared to that. I wouldn't worry about how pt school affects your relationships too much. If we waited until life was easy and manageable to have relationships we'd probably never actually have a relationship.

 

[uncwpt2018]

I'm only in my first month of school, so I don't have a broad perspective but, I think it's doable as long as you're both reasonable about how much time school takes. I'm in a long distance relationship, but we've been together for over 5 years and he understands that I don't have a lot of free time. On the other hand, I have to realize that PT school isn't everything and take time to spend with him.
I can't imagine starting a relationship during school because of our schedule and clinicals, but it's really all about balance.

 

[SympatheticTrunk]

My boyfriend and I moved together so I could go to school in North Carolina. We were in a serious relationship prior to moving and decided to move together. We make time for each other between me going to school and having to study and him working. That being said I think that it depends on the individual relationship. There is no clear cut, no relationships will not work in PT school, or yes they will.