Hello! This is the first thread I've made on this site so potentially a silly question lol. In the current short story that I am working on the protagonist is a Funeral Director in his 30's. Without giving away too much context, he is basically an amputee with a prosthetic leg. The ending will be him selling the funeral home and becoming a Physical Therapist to better help people. Would this change of career work or even be related? I understand he'd probably have to perform the proper schooling for it again. Any thoughts would help Thanks!
Well... I don't think it would be related, would it? I mean... he's presumably not been doing PT on corpses... But assuming he was willing to go back to school, and assuming he had enough strength and control in his artificial leg to be able to be reasonably physical (or was willing to specialize in areas of PT that don't require a lot of strength) I think he should be fine.
Career changes have a story to tell. I know a person who became a physical therapist in his 50's after a lifetime of operating heavy equipment, like bulldozers. He made the career change to get out of the heat, and because it paid well. I also know a welder who obtained a college degree in Psychology. I once asked, "Why are you welding? Shouldn't you be curing mental illness or something?" He replied, "I make more money welding." A simple explanation. Maybe your character's career change is more complicated, and a story in itself.
Any career change can work! The big thing would be how you portray that mental journey from one extreme to another.
There are certifications required to be a PT, so the only obstacle would be money and time for the new education. It's not like the type of job you can pick up with on-the-job training. However, having contacts in the field always help. How did he lose his leg? If he's a veteran, the VA could probably help place him once he's certified.
Thanks guys, this is actually a huge help for me. The two paths are definitely not related, but I am using as a means for development. It will make a lot more sense when the story is finished
Maybe he trained to do physical therapy, but then lost his leg before embarking on his career, and fell into the funeral business instead?
I could certainly see someone losing a leg as being a spur to change from whatever career they were in to physical therapy. I'm picturing a healthy, happy, whole funeral director who gets in a car accident, loses a leg, and in the course of therapy decides that his life would be better spent helping the living than burying the dead (no disrespect to funeral directors intended). The actual training and licensing time might be rough, but I wouldn't dismiss it as unrealistic on its face.
