When did you know you wanted to be an OT?

You may have seen AOTA’s recent Facebook© query about how and when you knew you wanted to  be an OT. It made me think about my own journey as an OT. As a freshman in high school, I observed occupational therapy at a large rehabilitation hospital in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA. I observed therapists engaging patients in real-life everyday activities in the kitchen and ADL suite, and I saw therapists using games and crafts to facilitate physical rehabilitation. How wonderful, I thought, to use creative and/or meaningful activities to help people do important everyday things.  I was hooked!

Fast forward to college – I went to Elizabethtown and truly enjoyed the craft or media classes. Many of you remember weaving on the looms and doing multiple craft activities with all those activity analyses. However, during those middle years, I also became unsure that OT was really for me. The physical rehabilitation that had captured my attention as a high school student no longer seemed interesting.

Then, the a-ha semester arrived! We were in our psychosocial interventions course, and it finally clicked for me. THIS was what excited me and made me want to learn even more. What made people think and behave the way they do? What thoughts go through their brains? What factors  support or inhibit mental health and functioning?

Since then, I have had the experience of working in various psychiatric settings with adults who have a range of psychiatric diagnoses, but my passion developed into working with those who have schizophrenia and similar serious mental illnesses. Why? Perhaps it is because the way they think is fascinating – a puzzle to analyze and figure out. Perhaps it is an inner drive to serve others and to care for the underserved, those who are often misunderstood by society.  Or perhaps because, for me, mental health practice seemed truly holistic in its approaches. Regardless of the reasons, I know that OTs have a role in supporting recovery and helping people re-engage in society…and isn’t that what all of us strive to do regardless of our practice settings?

So how did you know OT was the career for you?  What is your passion as an OT?