Childers turns accidents into career path
Editor’s Note: Franklin’s Future is a regular feature spotlighting a high school senior in Franklin County and what they have planned for life after graduation.
Life’s mishaps is what spun 18 year-old Class of 2010 Vina High School graduate Devyn Childers into pursuing a career as a physical therapy assistant.
Devyn Childers
In the VHS yearbook, friends of Childers said the term “accident prone” served to be her motto as she ended her grade school career.
Last year Childers broke her arm and tore her Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) with only two months in between the two incidents as a result of her tenacity in sporting events associated with VHS.
Coaches said her fearlessness on the field is one of her most admirable traits and it will help her through her college years.
“After I tore my ACL on June 4 of last year, I realized how important physical therapists are,” she said. “I had to do therapy for eight weeks before I could get back to normal.”
Childers plans to continue her education by attending Bevill Community College in Hamilton this fall to complete her basic requirements, then transfer to Itawamba Community College in Mississippi to complete the PTA program.
Childers said she may be transferring schools, but moving off to college isn’t an option.
“My family lives in Marion County, out in the country in a place known as ‘Bull Mountain’ and from there it is only a 20 minute drive, so I don’t see any sense in moving to go to college,” she said. “I’ll probably get tired of the drive, but it beats spending all that money to move out on my own.”
Childers believes it will only take four years to complete her education and hopes to return to the area to work.
“I’d like to get in with a rehabilitation center at a hospital close to home,” she said. “I’ll probably be looking at places like Tupelo, Russellville or Florence for a job.”
Childers said one day she hopes to have a family of her own living close to Vina so her kids could attend school there.
“I enjoyed growing up in a small town where everyone knows each other,” she said. “I hope to one day have a house in the middle of nowhere near my parents with a husband and three kids. I’d like for my kids to attend Vina High School just like I did and I want to live out near my family because I am kin to everyone that lives out that way.”
Childers currently works at Vina’s town hall as a secretary and plans to continue working there through her college years.
“I hope to keep steady hours there through the summer and once I hit college I plan to cut back to three days a week,” she said.
Childers describes her perfect day as sleeping in until 1 p.m. then heading out for a swim with friends.
“I’d also like to go shopping, buying whatever I want then come back home and hit the pillow again.”
Childers said besides sleeping, she enjoys fishing, running and reading.
“There are some people that make fun of me because I like to read but I can’t help it,” she said. “It is something I just enjoy doing.”
One of Childers’ fondest memories at VHS consists of her and her classmates putting a disciplinary slip on the principal’s desk because he left too early from school.
“Yeah, we decided if we couldn’t leave then he shouldn’t be able too, so we wrote him up,” she said, laughing.
Childers said if she can change anything, it would definitely be the “no walking on the grass” rule.
“I got caught walking on the grass just before we got out of school and had to do 10 push-ups,” she said. “If you’re caught on the grass by the principal you have to pay for it right then and there with everyone staring at you. It’s kind of embarrassing.”
Childers said she enjoyed her years at VHS and will miss sports and her coaches, especially Coach Paul who was a big influence in her life.
Childers said even though she will miss the hallways of VHS, she is ready and can’t wait to turn the page and open up a new chapter in her life as she attends college this upcoming semester.
