Any opportunity to kind of get your agency back or your independence or to reach any goal for any of us is an amazing feeling.

So to set a goal and to attain it is incredible.

Prosthetist makes artificial limbs.

These are all external prostheses that are functional.

So, you know, fingers, toes, hands, arms, feet, legs.

An orthotist is somebody who makes braces or it's from the Latin root ortho to straighten.

So it's, you know, anything, any external device to help someone who has all of their limbs, but they don't work properly or they're not functioning properly.

So it's something to, you know, function in their daily lives.

I'm going to take this out.

in undergrad I was a biomechanics major and I was an athlete in college and my whole life and just really fascinated with human movement.

As an athlete, we had nutritionists, we had biomechanics, we had sports psychologists.

I didn't even know those were professions.

So that's when I fell in love with biomechanics.

I didn't even know that was a thing.

Then I went to college and was on that path, and then it wasn't my senior year that I just very randomly in a photography class.

Then I met this prosthetist and was like, Have you ever had an intern?

And can I just check out what that is?

I went and shadowed him for like a week and I was sold.

I was like, you know, I remember calling my mom and dad and being like, I know what I want to do the rest of my life.

I never thought that there was a profession that you could do something that really matched art and science together.

It seems fine to me that you adapted or something.

Can you fill me in on any other?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So a few things.

I learned a little bit about who they were before this happened and what made them happy and and ultimately how they can get a sense of their life back in return to activities that they want to do or independence or whatever their goals are.

And then I and then after I feel like I have an understanding of that picture, then I can try to paint the picture forward for them and explain a timeline and the physiology of what to expect and just the general process.

And then from that point forward, it's truly a team effort.

They know their body better than anybody else.

I know what I do well, I know the art and science of prosthetics, but I really rely heavily on input from people on even questioning throughout the process, like reiterating goals.

Are we headed in the right path?

Is this the right thing?

I am an extrovert.

I love being with people.

I'm energized by meeting people, talking to them, listening to them.

All of that I almost equally enjoy just getting to to be alone and to modify molds.

That's kind of like the sculpture process when other people are around, I can't focus as much, but when I have some alone time, I can just blast music and focus and kind of get really hyper focused into something where I can envision that person's body.

It's a really beautiful process that I enjoy diving into and creating, and then when I fit someone and it fits well, it's like, Yeah, it never gets old when someone reaches some level of success or some goal that they have like decades into this profession.

Like I still get teary eyed every time I see someone walk for the first time.

Like it does not get old.

This is a journey.

And and part of the reason it's a journey is this thing has to interface with you.

This like foreign mechanical thing now has to become part of your body.

And our bodies are these, like, beautiful, dynamic, fluid things.