 It's easy to get put down in when you're on this journey. It really is. It's not, this journey is not for the lighthearted honestly. So I want to say, I would say this, be careful who you keep around you and the people who do support you keep them closer because they're going to be the ones to help you guide you on this journey. This is Adana. Welcome back to my channel. For those of you who've been coming to my channel, you've been looking at my videos, but you haven't really committed to being a part of this journey, go ahead and do that right now. Please for me, go ahead and hit that subscribe button and hit that notification bell as well so that you can be notified pretty much instantaneously when I upload a video instead of you guys kind of stalking my videos and trying to see when I upload a new video because I know we already got that relationship y'all. So go ahead and do that right now. You guys came here for the true life series and you guys, you guys are going to be in for such a treat because you're going to be introduced to Ameca who is a former collegiate athlete and he's now on the path to becoming a PA. He's a pre-PA student and you're going to be able to hear his journey from being that athlete to now what he has to experience in terms of applying to PA school and I'm pretty sure that many of you can relate to that. I know that I can, not that athlete part, no not that part, not the athlete part, but definitely just going through the process of applying to PA school. So buckle up because next voice that you're going to hear is Ameca. Here he is. Hi, my name is Ameca Wonkel. I'm a former collegiate athlete and I pursue the career as a position assistant and this is my true life. I played football at the University of Notre Dame. It was an experience of a lifetime. I can't, I can't say anything else about it. It was, it was something I can never forget. Started playing football back in high school actually. Got pretty good, won a state championship, like I said, went on to go to University of Notre Dame and I guess my experience playing ball I would say it taught me how to be a better person. It taught me how to be a man actually. And it just, it made everything, it just made life at the time better, if that makes sense. Playing football is not for everybody. Playing sports is not for everybody. It takes a toll on your body. It takes a commitment like no other. It takes a commitment that people, some people who have, whoever will never be involved in sports will never understand. But what I have to say is that I gained the brotherhood. I gained friendship. I gained family from it. If I had to do it all again, I would. I played a little arena football after I was done with college. That was fun. But other than that, that really wraps up my sports background. So I met my first PA when I was in college. Met my second PA when I was playing arena football. And, you know, I was always in, like, I was always in medicine. My family's the medicine, my dad, mom, sister. We were always involved with medicine. So growing up, that's all I knew. I was the one who enjoyed sports to another level. You know, I was good at it. So I wanted to pursue it. When sports was over, the PA profession just made sense to me. I really didn't want to spend another eight years trying to get a degree, just become a doctor. PA route just made sense for the timetable that is set. On top of the fact that there's a lot of things that PA's do that I just find interesting. And I feel like it fits my personality and fits what I want to be as a professional in healthcare. So yes, I think there's a big parallel between being a PA and being an athlete. Just like any sports team, they're always, they're going to be supporting role players on the team. And those supporting role players are just as important as a team leader. On a sports team, everybody can't be the LeBron James. Everybody can't be the Tom Brady's, which you can be the person that LeBron James throws the ball to or Tom Brady throws the ball to. And you be just as successful, just as important and just as relevant. And do your job properly and do it well. Yes, I do believe becoming an athlete is helping me on this road to becoming a PA. As an athlete, you dealt with more loss than wins. We're resilient. We deal with time management. We're followers. You know, we learn how to follow a lead of coaches, how to follow the lead of our teammates and our leaders on the team. We're team players. We understand the concept of hard work and determination. As an athlete, you can expect the best out of us every time. And when we fail, we know how to bounce back. For instance, if I'm on this cycle, I don't get in. I know what to address and I'll address it for next year. I'm not going to let it hold me back no matter what anybody says. I'm just going to keep pushing and pushing. That's the way I've been living my whole life and I'm not going to stop now. So we're just going to keep pushing. So right now, I've already applied to a couple of schools. So I'm in that process of just waiting to hear back for some interviews, hoping to hear back very soon. But it's a waiting game and I'm not going to wait. I know how to wait very well. So just got to wait and we'll see what happens. Just wish me luck. Okay, same motivation I had when I was playing ball. It's the same motivation I have now when I'm applying to PA school. Because to me, this is easier. I know that sounds crazy, but to me, this is easier. When you've been through what I've been through most athletes been through. This stuff is this stuff is cake. Really, you're not getting up at 5.30 in the morning to go run 110 yards. 20 of them. This is easy. This is easy compared to that. So the same motivation I put into that is making this journey so much more fun. I'm having a lot of fun on this journey becoming a PA and I did that on my journey to being a football player. I want to be successful. I'm successful. I'm success driven. I'm family driven. I want to be able to provide. For my family and becoming a PA is that that next chapter in my life that I need to accomplish. It has to be done. So yeah, that's what motivates me. So as far as specialties go, I'm up in the air. Honestly, I'll go wherever I feel like going. I honestly, I might try out a couple of specialties because we have that ability to try to cover specialties. But other than that, I'll go wherever. I'll go wherever. It don't really matter to me. I can tell you that I enjoy Ortho. I've been doing, I've been involved in that field for the past two years. Family medicine. So yeah, I can see myself going any route. Honestly, it doesn't really matter to me. I just want to be a PA. I just want to be working. So whatever route, you know, whatever God, whatever route God takes me on, that's the route I'm going to take honestly. All my friends and family are all supportive. Everybody is, like, rooting for me. You know, they want me to succeed because that's just the type of people I keep around me. I keep people around me who want to see others succeed. Just like I want to see everybody who's applying inside going to succeed. I wish we all could succeed. But you know, it's a numbers game. Everybody won't get in, but I'm still rooting for every single one of you. All my friends, you're all my family. Even if I haven't met you face to face, if we connected on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook, and we discussed something, I want you to succeed. Even if I haven't, if I liked one of your pictures, I want you to succeed too. Just understand that we're not competing against each other, in my opinion. We're all trying to get to the same goal. And eventually we all will. But when it comes to my peoples, they are A1 as far as just being there behind me, supporting me in any way they can. Because honestly, without people that support you on this journey, it can get real hectic, really, really fast. So you better keep people around you who are going to look after you, who are going to take care of you, who are going to support you, and not put you down. Because it's easy to get put down in when you're on this journey. It really is. This journey is not for the lighthearted, honestly. So I want to say this. Be careful who you keep around you, and the people who do support you keep them closer, because they're going to be the ones to help you and guide you on this journey. So the last thing I want to leave you guys with is, just don't be afraid. Understand that we're all living together. That life is unpredictable. This journey is unpredictable. No matter how hard you calculate this, calculate that, how hard you work here, how hard you work there, there's somebody working just as hard as you. So what's going to separate you from that person? What's going to make you different? You always have to think about what's going to make you different. And I'm just speaking from experience of other things I've done in life that this actually correlates to. So I always think about what's making you different. How are you separating yourself from the person who also has a 3.6 GPA? From the person who also shot off for 100 hours, from the person who also went and worked 3,000 hours in patient contact, who has 3,000 hours of patient contact hours. Like think about how can you separate yourself from that person? There's always something. There's always something you can do more. Like they used to tell us on football, don't leave anything on the field. Don't leave anything on the field. Put it all out there. If you're coming in, if you're coming in after a game, you're not dog tired, you didn't put your whole effort in it. Just make sure you're focused, make sure you have everything you need and just make sure that what you're doing is right and right for you, okay? This is LamecaTV signing out. I love you all. Respect, one love. Keep pushing. Don't stop. Like, share, subscribe to this video and don't forget to tune in and subscribe to LamecaTV, okay? Love you all. Bye. All right. Thank you so much, you guys, for watching this and thank you, Lameca, for sharing your story and being a part of this True Life series. I'm pretty sure that lots of people were motivated. I know, like, I'm not trying to get into PE school, but I'm motivated to continue to keep going in PA school because it's hard. And although I'm going through, going to go into clinicals now, you know, it's going to be a process, just that whole adjusting. And I'm sure just like how you had to adjust from being a collegiate athlete to now like focusing on the whole healthcare field, it's the same kind of thing where you're going to have to kind of do a little mind switch. Although things may still be the same, you have to do a mind switch on that. So thank you so much for sharing that. I did want to share with you guys one thing. From listening to his story and just looking back on my own experience, I've realized this thing that is really important. I want you guys to know that delay is not denial. So although you may be in a state where you're actually kind of in this delayed phase, you know, you're not exactly where you want to be. You're not exactly where you expected yourself to be. And you may be doubting a little. You may be having a little bit of self doubt and you're not really sure on, hey, should I be a PA? Should I be an NP? Should I be in the healthcare field at all? Should I go work at YouTube? Whatever it is, understand that your delay is not denial. If I had taken my delay as denial, I wouldn't be here today talking to you guys, encouraging you, sharing these two live series with you all because I wouldn't be in PA school. I'd been like, all right, well, what else can I do? Where can I go now? Because clearly God, you said no. But that's not the case. So sometimes we have to step outside of ourselves, look at what we're supposed to learn in this time of delay, better ourselves as much as we can and keep pushing forward. So please do not give up on your dreams, continue to push forward, continue to push through, forge your path and understand that delay is not denial. Thank you guys so much for watching again. If you haven't already done so, follow me on Instagram, MetadonnathePA and hit that subscribe button. Leave some comments in the comment section below if you have any questions or you have any other true life series that you would like me to make or you would like to see. I'll see what I can do and I will definitely try to get to all those comments as or as many comments as I possibly can because guys, I am in school. All right. If you guys have not already done so, go ahead and hit him up on his different social media handles. I'll leave him in the description box. You guys can follow him on his journey and give him some support, y'all. We all need support. So let's support each other. Again, thank you guys. I am so grateful for all of you that are on this journey with me and I cannot wait to talk to you guys next time. Bye. I just wanted to, I guess the coaches to see that I could be that guy and that, just like everybody I see I'm making plays, you know. That kid that was nobody could be somebody. Yeah. Yeah.